The Cortalioni Heir
by trexie
Summary: When Harry was five, he was adopted by the Powerful Cortalioni Family. Now he lives in Italy, is the Lombardi Prodigy, and heir to the Cortalioni enterprise. Life is wonderful until he is called back to England and meets Draco Malfoy again. DMHP
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer I'm not JK Rowling (She is a much better author than I). I do not own Harry Potter or any characters from Harry Potter world of literature. Just this little assembly of words…_

**Prologue**

Antonio Cortalioni was not a happy man. He had discovered that one of his associates were stealing from the supply, and needed to be paid a little visit. No one steals from Shy Tony and gets away with it. Now Tony was sitting in his car in front of number 6 Privet Drive, deciding how to best approach the situation when a small boy with messy black hair walked out of the neighbouring house.

The boy looked around three years old and was wearing baggy threadbare clothes, with broken glasses perched on his nose. Tony watched as he immediately started weeding some flowerbeds with what seemed years of experience, but that was not what caught his attention. Tony could almost see the magic radiating from the little boy. He could feel it pulsating and was intrigued that such a powerful child was residing in a muggle suburb.

Tony signalled for his driver to wait a few more minutes as he observed this compelling child. It also served to make his associate more anxious as he watched the child moved quickly through the gardening and on to another flowerbed in record time. Tony was about to leave the car when the boy stood up and used his shirt to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and Tony saw the large bruises on his torso.

Tony came from a large Italian family, and like all Italian families they put family as the most important thing. Seeing a child with such a large bruises, and probably other injuries working in the garden caused him to put a personal interest into the boys family. Most people in Italy knew that if Shy Tony took a personal interest in your family, you were either rewarded greatly or you suffered terribly. Tony was leaning towards the latter for the family he had yet to meet.

Finally deciding to attend to business, Tony got out of the car and approached number 6 Privet Drive. Tony spent two hours 'talking' business with his associate, when he heard a shout.

"BOY, GET IN HERE!" The unknown man yelled. Tony merely gave his associate a raised eyebrow in question before he answered.

"Don't worry about it, Tony. It's just the Dursleys calling in their nephew to cook dinner."

Tony didn't show any emotion to hearing that, but inside he was plotting. He didn't know why, but the boy intrigued him and knew power like that shouldn't be left unattended. Nodding his head, he continued talking with the other man until he got bored and signalled his men to carry out the rest. Tony had lulled the man into a false sense of security, before he sent his men to finish.

Tony left the house after having his men cast a silencing charm so no one would hear the screams and walked directly over to number 4 Privet Drive, and knocked on the door. A horse-faced woman answered the door, giving herself a nod, apparently approving of his attire before greeting him. He said nothing, waiting for her to introduce herself. She seemed to take the hint.

"Hello, I am Petunia Dursley. How may I help you?"

"Ah, Mrs Dursley… I am here about that black-haired child that resides here." He stated simply.

"Oh, what has the freak done now?!" Tony was shocked at how quickly her expression changed at the mention of the boy. It was if acid was dripping from her tongue when she said the word 'freak'. He did not like this situation at all.

"Well, if I may be invited in? I don't like talking about such… _delicate matters_ in the open." Tony had pegged the woman perfectly when she began looking around, as if the neighbours were hiding in her bushes, waiting for gossip. She stepped aside and let him enter before scanning the street again, and then closing the door.

"Please, Mr…?" she paused to allow him to say his name but he merely gave her a cool look, before she continued "let's retire to the sitting room. My husband will be joining our discussion of the boy" She finished. Tony could only sense one magic source in the entire house and knew it was the boy. He continued to ponder how such a magical child could end up here when they entered the sitting room and Tony saw a large man in an armchair.

Tony only needed five minutes to discover that this family hated the boy. They spoke about him only with disdain and, after observing the room, he noticed that not a single photograph contained the boy. The family seemed to house another boy who, like his father, was fair-haired and bigger than average; but the black haired boy went by undetected. Finally, the woman remembered her manners and left the room to prepare tea.

Tony merely sat with the large man in silence before his wife returned and sat down stating that the tea would be brought in soon. The woman noticed him looking at the family pictures on the mantle and began to praise her wonderful 'Duddikins' when the door opened again admitting the very child they had been talking about. He was carrying a tea tray, and seemed to be absorbed in watching the carpet as he laid everything out before preparing their cups.

Tony watched the boy and answered when he asked how he took his tea, but grew more concerned when the boy flinched when his uncle moved forward to retrieve his cup. When he saw the boy was about to leave, Tony decided to speak with him.

"Excuse me young boy, but what is your name?" He decided to ignore the flinch at the word 'boy' and waited for an answer. When the boy looked up, Tony was mesmerized by his bright green eyes. They held a hidden depth of age and knowledge that should not have been present in any child his age, but what really caught his attention was the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. The boy was Harry Potter.

Tony wanted to know what he was doing in this terrible muggle home. He was about to interrogate the Aunt and Uncle when the boy- Harry- spoke in a soft voice.

"I don't know sir." The boy then turned around and left the room, before his Uncle could yell.

Tony knew that Harry Potter had defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort four years ago which meant that he was five years old, but the boy that served him tea only looked three, and that was being generous. Tony regarded the Horse and Whale again and asked one question in a calm and controlled voice.

"How did you acquire that boy?"

The woman looked relieved that he didn't seem angry about the boy not knowing his name and eagerly answered

"Oh, he is the son of my dead sister. She and her husband were drunkards, they killed themselves in a car crash. So out of the goodness of our hearts we took the boy in, but he seems to be becoming just as stupid and worthless as his parents." The first part seemed rehearsed to him, but the last part held malice that could not be faked. In that instant Tony knew what he was going to do.

"I'm taking him with me." He stated simply before rising and leaving the room to search for the boy. Tony just spotted him in the kitchen when he heard a yell vibrate through the house.

"WHAT?" The whale had quite the set of lungs on him. Tony ignored the sputtering man and his ashen faced wife, before he took the boy and left. That was the last time Harry Potter would ever see number 4 Privet Drive and the last time he would be treated like a slave.

Shy Tony informed him that they would be moving to Italy, and that he would personally adopt him. Two weeks after being rescued from the Dursleys, Harry Potter became Antonio Nico Harry Cortalioni or Antonio Cortalioni the sixth. He started a new life as a member of the Cortalioni Clan, gaining two older sisters, Annalisa and Emilia and he learned about the world of magic.


	2. Hot N Cold

**Hot N Cold**

**PeruvianDarkness has agreed ot beta for this story as well.**

**So many Thanks to her!**

* * *

A Fifteen year old Antonio Cortalioni the sixth dragged himself out of bed for his early morning rehearsal that day and sighed as he remembered his dream. He had been five and living in a cupboard under the stairs when his Father kicked down the door and rescued him. His Papa had been wearing a superhero cape and when they left the house they flew to Italy and worked together to fight crime.

Toni, as his friends called him, decided he needed to stop eating so much candy before bed. He quickly showered and dressed before leaving for the rehearsal space in the Arts Department of his school. Toni loved his school. They focussed mainly on the Arts but did very well in academics as well. Toni had started at The Lombardi School of Arts and Magic when he was nine years old, and loved every day of it. He had excelled in learning to play the Violin and Cello, but one day he discovered the joy of being on stage.

When he was eleven years old, he had been invited to see a Play at Teatro Colesseo, for a magic-only audience, and had fell in love with the performance. It had been a production of 'Don Pasquale' by Giovanni Ruffini and the comedic opera that had opened his eyes to the wonders of acting. He returned home and asked his father to switch him into some drama courses, henceforth beginning his acting career. After a few weeks, Toni had requested being enrolled as a double major student for music and theatre and earned the title of the Lombardi Prodigy.

Today he had one final dress rehearsal before the Opening performance that night. He had been cast as Peter Pan in the Academies play 'Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up' by J.M Barrie. They had been working on it for four months and were now approaching the home stretch. It wasn't a full rehearsal that morning, just a run through for lines and blocking, but all costumes, scene changes, lighting and sound were done by magic and the performers needed to conserve their magic for the opening.

Toni spent the morning walking through his blocking and lines with the other actors and then spent a quiet lunch with the cast and crew for a final bonding session. They cleaned up and prepped the stage and pit for the performance before retiring two hours before show to get into costume and makeup. Toni had one costume that he wore all night and didn't need to run around as much as the others. He had to wear a simple forest green tunic and green tights, with little cloth shoes and a brown belt with a small dagger attached. He had twenty of these costumes, since every night during the performance the outfit would be shredded and ruined until the end. Magic could fix so much, but after the rough treatment he was about to put the cloth through, it was best to just have a fresh costume every day.

Blaise Zabini was sitting in his Uncle's car with his best friend, headed towards the school to see his cousin perform. He had received owls for months from her detailing how excited she was for the play, and how she desperately wanted him there for her big debut. Isabella Zabini had tried for five years to make into the Academy Production, but they only cast the best performers. Finally, she got cast as Tiger Lily, and could not have been happier. Blaise, deciding he didn't want to suffer alone, had invited his best friend Draco Malfoy with him to see the play.

Currently, Draco was staring out the window, appearing to be bored while Blaise was desperately trying to get his Uncle to stop bragging about his daughter. He didn't see what was so important about walking on stage in a gaudy outfit and delivering a few written words. He had only seen one play in muggle London and wasn't impressed by it. He failed to think of how a wizard play could differ from the muggle one. In his mind, wizards and witches should be focussed on business and Politics, not the arts.

They pulled up at the School and exited the car. Blaise having seen the Academy before, so didn't look twice but Draco, who was visiting for the first time, took a moment to appreciate the Italian Renaissance design. They entered the Auditorium and took their seats in Box 4 when the Balcony doors opened for a large group of men.

It was Tony Cortalioni was with eight of his guards to watch his son's performance. He took his seat in the middle box and his group separated to fill the boxes on either side of him. He was sitting in the only comfortable looking one in the entire place- a leather armchair- and he settled in to read the program. Blaise was just finished watching when Draco leaned over.

"Blaise, who's that, and why does he seem so important?"

"Dray, that's Tony Cortalioni. He's the Head of all the Italian Families." Blaise replied.

"Antonio Cortalioni? My father has been trying to start a business venture with him for years. He cannot even get an appointment with him. What is he doing here?" Draco asked. Before Blaise could speak up his uncle answered for him.

"Antonio Cortalioni is here to watch his heir perform. He attends every performance of his son's, whether dramatic or musical." He stated. As he finished speaking, the lights began to flash signalling that the audience had five more minutes to settle in.

"Dramatic OR Musical? I thought that a student could only be enrolled in one art form." Blaise said.

"Normally, but Toni Cortalioni the sixth is also known as the Lombardi Prodigy. He entered as a music student and mastered two instruments his first year, then expanded. Everyone thought he was a genius until he was 11 and switched into Drama. After seeing his first performance Tony could not have been more proud of his son. He was pure art and magic on the stage that the Headmaster allowed him to enter into a Double major. It is not normally done because of all the work it takes for one major, but Toni is so advanced that it doesn't matter." Blaise's Uncle Beto replied.

"Art and magic on stage? How does magic enter a theatre performance? They just waltz on stage and say a few memorized lines." Draco asked.

"Just watch." Beto said before returning his focus to the stage. The lights dimmed and the curtain opened to reveal a bedroom scene with three beds. The set was nice and the performers were okay, Draco sat back in his chair to watch the mediocre performance until a boy with messy black hair entered through a window, wearing green tights. He flew across the stage and moved with a feline grace. His body was thrumming with magic and his lithe body made it feel as if he weren't moving but everything was moving around him.

Draco finally understood how art and magic go together when the boy playing Peter Pan used his to change the set. They went from the bedroom scene to a night sky. The boy used his magic to create stars that formed in his hand before flying off to the respective place son stage. Together the performers created different buildings to fly over and the boy made several shooting stars before they landed in a dense forest setting. Draco watched mesmerized as the play continued. He barely registered when Blaise pointed out his cousin because he was so enamoured by the mess haired boy.

When the intermission rolled around, Draco and Blaise did not want the performance to stop. They had to be reminded by Blaise's uncle that the performers needed a break as well to rest their magic. They left for the bar outside, before they continued talking.

"That was amazing." Blaise started.

"You silly English raised wizards. You focus entirely on Politics, and have lost the Arts. Here in Italy we encourage our youth to explore them, and if they are not suited to any then they can focus on academics or business or even Politics if they so choose. That is why you have never seen a magical live performance." He stated.

Draco registered this and he understood where the Italian was coming from. Hogwarts focussed on academics and while fathers and uncles taught the students business and Politics at home. They never had any art classes and barely any physical fitness classes. The majority of the magic they learned in class they would hardly use again someday, yet here they encouraged the use of magic every day. They used it to its full potential in every performance. Draco wasn't sure how the magic would be used with an instrument but was not curious to see a concert. He finally gathered the courage to ask about Peter Pan.

"Beto, who was that boy playing Peter? He was absolutely amazing on stage."

"Ah that would be Toni Cortalioni. I told you he was talented. He has been in every School performance for the last four years."

"_That's_ the Cortalioni heir?" Blaise joined the conversation.

"Yes. He makes me very proud." A voice from behind them spoke. The group of three turned around to see Tony Cortalioni and his group staring at them. "Thank you for the compliment about my son, I am sure that, if he were here, he would be most pleased with your statement." He said, staring at Draco.

Draco was nervous. His Father had been trying to speak with this man for years, and Draco was standing in front of him.

"Mr. Cortalioni, I am sure that considering how talented your son is, any compliment from a stranger like me would surely pass by him without notice."

"Ah, you do not know my son. He is wonderfully talented but he believes himself only to be a mediocre performer. Whenever he is complimented, he hardly wants to believe that the person is speaking the truth. He is too modest, I say." The Cortalioni Patriarch stated. Just then, the lights began to flicker again, telling the audience to return to their seats. "Ah time to go; I would be devastated to miss even a moment of my son's performance. It was nice talking to you gentlemen." With that said Tony turned and walked away.

"Did I just talk to Antonio Cortalioni?" Draco whispered.

"Yes. You did." Blaise shared the awestruck look that Draco wore while watching the retreating back of the most powerful man in Italy walk away.

"Well boys, back to our seats." Beto then began leading them back to the box and the second half of the performance.

Toni had been backstage with the rest of the performers when he was handed an energizing potion from the Stage Manager. He quickly drank the potion that was flavoured with mint before grabbing a bottle of water. He took a few small drinks before dabbing the sweat from his face and walking to the observation deck. Majority of the audience didn't know about the observation deck in the auditorium. Performers would relax in the couches and chairs and switch the roles and watch the audience mingle before the show and during the intermission. Normally Toni would avoid the observation deck but during opening nights he would go and see the expression on his Papa's face.

Just as he reached the deck he was called over by some of his friends but he just waved to them before approaching the glass. When he looked towards his Papa's box, he noticed that he was just preparing to go to the bar, but he wore a large grin on his face. So far his Padre had enjoyed the show. Toni was ecstatic, since he had been worried that his Papa wouldn't enjoy his son prancing around the stage in tights. There would be no fights tonight.

When Toni had been twelve, they had performed Macbeth. Toni had only been cast as Banquo, and when he had been murdered, his Padre had assumed it was the director's way of threatening Tony. After the show, he had gathered his guards and marched up to the director and nearly ordered his execution before Toni stepped in and stopped him. The director had promptly quit after that and left the country, while Toni was cautious to ensure that his Padre enjoyed every performance after that.

Toni snapped out of his memories when he felt the energizing potion kick in. He quickly evaluated his body and noted he would need a second potion for the rest of the show so he didn't get too burnt out by the end. He also used more magic on opening to impress his Padre, but normally he didn't get this drained. He turned around to search out the Stage Manager when he was side tracked by an over excited Isabella Zabini.

"Hey Toni! Wow, you're really performing well tonight. I am so honoured to be performing with you." She babbled. Toni could only smile, since she seemed too excited to let him get a word in. "Anyways, I was so happy that I finally got into a show that invited my cousin all the way from Scotland to watch. He is in the audience and, well, the rest of the actors are having a celebratory party after the show, and I was wondering if you could come? My cousin will be joining us and I really hope you can come and meet him." She gave him a pleading look and he couldn't help but to agree to go and meet her cousin. She was a good girl overall. A little excitable, but a decent actress. She was two years older than him and in her final year, so Toni was glad that after this long she finally made a performance.

"I would love to go, but I must find Nadia to get a second energizing potion." He told her.

"Second? Everyone else has already had three." Isabella gave him a questioning look while blocking his exit.

"Normally I only need one, but tonight I seem to be using more magic than normal. Excuse me while I prep for the second half." He gave her a soft smile before moving past her. He located Nadia quickly and got another potion, before walking to stage left where his entrance would be. Toni saw the lights flicker before triple checking his costume and giving himself a quick shake to slip back into character. He saw the lights dim and he moved onto the stage to assume his pose before the lights came up.

Toni had just walked off stage from his curtain call when he was swarmed by a happy cast and crew. Everyone was trying to either hug him or pat him on the back.

"Okay, okay" he laughed, "Everyone did an awesome job tonight, not just me." When no-one seemed to be letting up on the hugging, he tried again. "I need to breathe you know!" he yelled. Suddenly a gasp let out and everyone backed off to make sure that he was okay. "Well now that I'm free, everyone go change and wash up. I believe we have a cast party to attend." With that, he shooed every one away while laughing and retreating to his own dressing room.

After the show, Draco was still reeling about how phenomenal the entire thing had been. The difference between muggle and wizarding were so profound that Draco vowed to never see a muggle show again. Blaise had mentioned his cousin inviting them to a cast party, and was eager to meet the actors. They stopped at Blaise's uncle house to change before getting back in the car and driving to an unknown location. Isabella had left the address with the driver so they didn't know where they were going.

They arrived at a pretty normal looking house and knocked on the door. A male actor answered the door wearing a pair of tight jeans and a muscle shirt. He let them in and led them to the kitchen where Isabella was busy talking to the girl who played Wendy. When she felt a tap on her shoulder she turned and immediately jumped onto Blaise.

"Blaise! How did you like the show?" she asked after she had finished squealing.

"You were wonderful, the play was amazing. You blew all my expectations out of the water!" Blaise didn't bother telling her that he had very low expectations since it would probably drag down her mood.

"Really? You thought I was good? I mean, when performing with Toni, it's hard to notice anyone else's acting but you actually thought I was good?" Draco could tell that Isabella held Blaise's opinion in high regard.

"The kid who played Peter Pan? Nah, everyone knows that Peter would be nothing without Tiger Lily. You were the star tonight." He replied.

Isabella disentangled herself from around Blaise, before smacking his arm. "Oh, now I know you're lying to me. But, seriously, did you enjoy it?"

"Yes, you were quite lovely. I am glad I came to see you. I had a fantastic time during the play, and look forward to attending your future shows." Blaise hugged his cousin quickly before turning around to introduce Draco. "Bella, this is Draco, my best friend. He also enjoyed the show and I believe had become a life long fan of the performing arts." He said with a smirk.

Draco shot him a glare before stepping forward and taking Isabella's hand to kiss quickly. "A pleasure to meet you, Signorina."

"Oh, sod all those pureblood customs. You're at a party, they don't belong here. Now let's go quickly because I believe Toni just arrived and I wanted to introduce you to him. He looks exhausted, so we better do this before he leaves." Like a woman on a mission, she grabbed both their wrists and dragged them back to the front door where a large group of people were gathering. "Move! Toni needs to breathe remember." She shouted before she dropped their wrists and elbowed her way to the front.

"Blaise, you cousin can be quite… aggressive." Draco stated as he noticed another person nursing a future bruised ribcage.

"Yes, but she can be quite the lady when she needs to be." Blaise replied.

Draco watched as Isabella emerged from the crown dragging a tired looking Toni Cortalioni behind her. Draco noticed that he was taller than the boy who was probably 5'9. Toni had bright green eyes and the same messy black hair. He was wearing fitted designer blue jeans, with a black v-neck shirt and a black jacket. He did look extremely tired and moved sluggishly.

"Blaise, Draco I would like to introduce Toni. He is the best performer at Lombardi's and my mentor." She stated while motioning towards the shorter male. "Toni, this is my cousin, Blaise and his best friend Draco. They go to Hogwarts, but I managed to convince Blaise to drag himself here for the show. "Draco was curious about the mentor comment since the boy barely looked 16.

"Pleasure to meet you Toni… excuse me for asking, but how old are you?" Draco asked. Toni merely gave a small smile before shaking Draco's hand.

"Nice to meet you as well. I'm 15. I'm guessing you asked because Bella said I was her mentor? Well, to answer quickly she is exaggerating. I gave her advice once and since then she has believed that I am a theatre guru." He then turned to Blaise and continued. "It's a pleasure to finally meet Bella's cousin. She talks about you constantly and I was about to go crazy if I didn't get to meet you before she told another story about your adventures." He also shook Blaise's hand and then regarded Isabella. "Bella, I am terribly sorry but I must leave early. The show took way too much out of me and I need rest. Enjoy your night and relish in the compliments because you deserve them." He said before turning and starting to walk away. Draco found this behaviour seriously rude and decided to speak up. In pureblood society, one never left a conversation before bidding goodbye to all parties, and as a Malfoy he held to the pureblood traditions and policies very tightly.

"Well that was rude. One should always big goodnight to everyone in the conversation before leaving. Also I don't understand why you're so tired when it seems everyone else is still full of energy." Toni seemed shocked that he had spoken up. He turned towards Draco and looked confused before assuming an apologetic face.

"You are correct and I am dreadfully sorry for ignoring you." Draco hadn't noticed but when he commented on Toni behaviour everyone around them seemed to stop and stare that someone would speak to a Cortalioni that way. "In my tired state I forgot others were around, once again I apologize. As for the energy issue, I used to most magic tonight on stage, and also everyone here has taken an energy potion and I have not." Toni didn't bother telling them that he hated how the energy potion made his body bloated and how he crashed hard after they wore off. He would need the rest of the night and most of the day tomorrow to work tonights potion out of his system. He figured tomorrow he would wake up just in time to make call.

"It was still very rude, and then you admitted to forgetting about us. It was hardly a minute past since you shook our hands." For some reason Draco just could not let this go.

"Yes I know and I apologized. I really didn't mean you any offence." Toni responded. Toni was tired and just wanted to crawl into bed but this blonde Brit just wouldn't let him leave. "I bid you goodnight Draco and to you as well Blaise." Toni then turned and left the three standing there.

Draco still thought he was rather rude, but was quickly reminded of who he was by Blaise. "Draco, you did remember that was the Cortalioni heir correct?" Blaise asked. Draco paled as he had forgotten that little bit of information hen addressing the boy. To him the smaller boy who danced around in tights all night could not be the same boy who was being raised to take over the Cortalioni Enterprise. "Shit" he said.

Isabella had noticed the looks they were getting and quickly pulled the boys into another room before getting them all drinks. The spent the rest of the night talking but Draco could not get rid of the feeling that something bad was going to happen to him since he insulted the Cortalioni heir. Also there was something about the boy. He didn't look like his father. Mentally comparing the two, he couldn't find anything similar about the two except for the tanned skin. Deciding to forget about it now, he ignored the feeling and enjoyed the rest of the night at the party.

Toni had returned home with a frown on his face. His Padre had seen the look, and took him into his study to discuss what was wrong.

"Toni, what's wrong? You look upset about something."

"Nothing Papa, it's just that I met a boy tonight and he pointed out that I was rude. I am merely trying to think of other times where I may have exhibited the same behaviour and offended someone."

Tony was surprised that someone had the nerve to tell his son that he was rude. It was also a surprise to hear his son being rude, when Toni was the most well mannered youth he had every crossed. Toni was soft spoken and quiet when he was not on stage. He made friends easily and everyone seemed to genuinely like him. He had never seen or heard about any bad behaviour from Toni, unless it was regarding an incident where he stood up for his friends that were being bullied. He was too kind hearted to intentionally be rude to anyone, even an enemy he was nice to.

"I am sure it was an accident and that this person was upset by something else and was taking it out on you. There is nothing to worry about, you are never rude and I have never had a single complaint about your behaviour."

"I guess you're right, but I had just met him and I don't think I left a good impression. He probably hates me now and I won't have the chance to apologize." Toni sighed before he got up and hugged his Padre. "I'm about to fall asleep in your chair. I believe it was time I retired to my bed,"

"Buonanotte mio piccolo mostro. By the way, you were amazing tonight. I am so proud of you."

As Toni retired to bed, he figured he would probably never meet the Blonde again, so he should stop worrying about the incident. Besides, if he did meet him again it would be during the war, and they wouldn't have time to discuss one little meeting. Toni knew that he was Harry Potter and destined to defeat the dark lord. His Padre had been prepping him since he was ten to get ready for the fight. Whenever he was home, and not practising his lines or music, he was in the training room working on his offensive and defensive spells. Toni knew that even if he wasn't the Saviour, he would have to know these spells, since the Cortalioni's had a lot of enemies out there.


	3. Weeping

_**Weeping**_

A year after playing Peter Pan, Toni was found in the rehearsal room, once again, but with a new role. He would be playing Erik or The Phantom in _**Le Fantôme de l'Opéra. **_Most of the other actors didn't want to play The Phantom since their face would be covered and because they would be considered a villain, but Toni thought the character was brilliant. He couldn't wait to perform and was eager to step into the character. He knew he was a slightly under average in height due to the years of malnutrition, so the other boys generally thought him weak at first glance. They laughed when he first stepped forward to audition for The Phantom, but after his monologue, no one could deny how much Toni wanted the role or how perfect he was for it.

Toni donned the white mask and black cloak every rehearsal and created such illusions with his magic that no one dared to compete with him. After months of rehearsal, he was eager to perform and make his Papa proud. Toni knew that this would be his best performance yet and started the countdown to curtain. Four hours 'til Show Time.

**Four**** hours left**

Draco stepped out of the fireplace and into the home of Blaise's uncles. Bella had pleaded for them to accompany her to Lombardi to see her friends perform. After weeks of being begged, the two Slytherins agreed and were now arriving at Bella's to spend the next few days. Draco wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was excited to see the play. Last years had been amazing, so he held high hopes for this one. Bella refused to tell them what was being performed, but made sure they knew how to speak French, or at least a good translation charm.

"Blaise, Draco! Welcome back!" Beto loudly exclaimed from the stairs.

"Uncle, I hope you have been well?" Blaise replied.

"Yes, yes, but I am so happy that you returned to see another performance. I got us the same box as last year and, according to Bella, there will be more surprises in this show."

"Mr. Zabini, do you know which play is being performed tonight?" Draco hoped that he would finally know what he was to see.

"Bella warned me not to tell you. Now, let's get you settled in your rooms, and ready for dinner." With that Beto clapped his hands twice and two house elves appeared to take their luggage.

Toni was on stage, harmonizing with Elise- who was playing Christine- on stage when their director stepped forward and asked to have a private word with Toni. Apologizing to Elise, he stepped off the stage and followed the man into the back of the auditorium.

"Toni, I know that have worked you hard this season, and I just wanted to say that I am very proud of you. You stepped out of your comfort zone and took on a character type that you have never played before. You were willing to wear a mask and work 20 times harder to compensate for lack of facial expression and most importantly, you have done such a marvellous job that I am honoured to be your director." Toni noticed that his director was anxious about something, but hesitant to say it. Toni waited for a 'but'.

"I'm sorry, it's just I woke up this morning and I felt like this would be the last time I got to work with you. Like something bad was going to happen, but I can't explain it. I'm sorry, I can't give you more details, or what is going to happen, but I knew I had to tell you that… I'm proud of you and I hope that whatever your future brings, you succeed and find happiness." Toni was stunned. He didn't know how to respond to the directors words, but had a faint idea of what they could mean. "Let's just forget about this conversation and focus on tonight and the play." He added.

Toni nodded and walked away. He returned to the stage and took a moment to collect himself before giving the signal to return to the vocal warm ups. He would think of this later and discuss it with his father.

**Three hours to go.**

Draco just finished getting ready for dinner when Blaise walked into his room. "I'm telling you, I looked and I looked and I looked, but I can't find a trace of what this play could be! It's like some big secret or something!"

"Blaise, calm down. In a few hours, we will be sitting in our seats with a program telling what play it is. Just have a little patience and finish getting ready for dinner. You've only got half an hour."

"Draco, I'm ready. Not everyone needs as much time as you to do their hair." Draco turned around and sneered at his friend, before assuming a haughty mask and raising his nose to his friend.

"You can't rush perfection." He simply replied. He turned back to the mirror to try and locate any misplaced hair, and adjust his clothing. When he finished he turned back to Blaise "Well, lets go Zabini, you're going to make us late for dinner if you keep laying about." Draco had time to see Blaise roll his eyes before he briskly walked out of the room.

Toni just finished a light dinner with the cast and crew when the Stage Manager rushed into the rehearsal room and started pushing people towards their dressing rooms.

"What are you doing sitting around? Everyone to their dressing rooms then hair and make-up!" When she saw no one moving right away, she took out her wand. "Don't make me start using stinging hexes to get you going." She threatened. Hearing the commanding tone, the cast leapt to their feet and rushed off to prepare.

Once again, Toni was glad he didn't have an extensive wardrobe or a need for make-up. Later in the play, he would have to change and cast a charm for a scarred face, but mainly he wore the mask, black poet shirts, slacks and the black cloak. He didn't envy the females who would wear the corsets, hoop skirts and whatever else they had to put on.

As he entered his dressing room, he noticed a single red rose on the vanity. Toni sighed, as he already knew whom it was from. Salvo had been trying to court Toni for two years, but Toni wasn't interested. Salvo had gone to Tony twice to ask permission to court the Cortalioni heir, but Tony refused saying he had not shown himself worthy enough. Toni was grateful since he found Salvo to be an arrogant, stuck up prick. He would constantly flirt and send him gifts, hoping to change the young heirs mind.

Toni threw the rose out, and stripped. He carefully slicked back his shaggy hair, and put on his costume. After ensuring that no gel had gotten on his shirt or cloak, he placed the white, half mask on the right side of his face. After he checked his appearance once more, he looked at the time. Lighting would be on their deck time, so he would be called soon.

**Two hours to go**

Draco was sitting at the dining table, quietly chatting with Beto, when a House Elf appeared.

"Tippy is sorry, Master, but Master Cortalioni is here to see you." It announced. Draco saw the older man pale slightly before nodding to the elf.

"Very well. I will meet him in my study." Beto wiped his mouth with his napkin, before setting it down. "Excuse me, but I seem to have business to attend to." With that he rose from his seat and left the room.

"Do you think everything is alright?" Draco asked. Bella was the one to respond.

"Everything should be fine. I bet it's just Cortalioni needing to have extra security tonight, and he is just now informing my father. "

"Does he do that often?"

"Need extra security or wait forever to inform people?" she asked

"Both." Draco replied.

"Sometimes he needs extra guards, like if there's a planned event he is attending or known public outing with his family. Sometimes he will get wind of threats to his family or himself and bump up the security for a few weeks. Once, three men almost kidnapped his heir, when Toni was eight. Cortalioni kept him locked up for a month before the man responsible was caught."

"I see. So do you think there's a threat tonight?"

"Maybe, but we will find out once we get there."

"Wait- so even if you suspect that some shit is going to happen tonight, you still want to go see this play?" Blaise finally spoke.

"Cortalioni would never allow anything to happen to his children. Being in the same building as them is much safer than staying in your own bedroom tonight." She calmly replied. Draco sneered slightly when the memory of the short black haired actor came to mind. All he saw was the arrogant face, a spoiled, rude child who lived off daddy, and probably bought his roles every year. Sure, he remembered him being good as Peter Pan, but how hard is it to fly around in tights?

Beto re-entered the room looking slightly better, since colour had returned to his cheeks.

"We will need to leave in an hour, since Cortalioni needs us to double check security tonight." He said before leaving once more. Draco looked to Bella, to see her frown and shake her head.

"Well, lets go get ready." She said before also rising to take her leave. Draco and Blaise exchanged looks knowing they were missing something.

**One hour to go.**

Toni listened as the orchestra finished their deck time and the Stage Manager came around to collect the actors for their final vocal warm-up. He was ushered on the stage with the rest of the actors and actresses and immediately took his place at the centre of the line to start the harmonizing. When he looked towards the director, he saw him staring at him with a look remorse. Suddenly a wave of dread swept through him, as he realized that the director was probably right and this would be the last time they worked together. As he looked at the other performers, he knew it was him that would leave, and never work with them again.

Earlier he had called his father and told him of what the director said, and his own theories, but now he knew that what he did was the right path. His father would ensure that no harm came to anyone else in the theatre, and hopefully himself as well.

When Draco pulled up to the school, he immediately noticed the wall of guards in black suits waiting outside. Draco saw they were in a line of waiting cars, and that each car the pulled up near the men was scanned, before all persons inside were asked out of their cars. The guards scanned and referenced every single person before allowing the theatre watchers to enter, and the drivers to drive away from the building and back out of the gates. They had to wait ten minutes before their car was finally being inspected. Draco couldn't wait any longer and finally asked a question.

"What is the purpose of this?" Beto looked at him and gave him a sheepish look before answering.

"Cortalioni was concerned about tonight's show, so he requested all audience members to arrive early for a screening. They don't want any unwanted personnel to enter the building. Once the building is secured, then Cortalioni will arrive and the show can start." He said. Draco was still slightly confused but decided against more questions.

They entered and waited in the lobby with the other patrons for the doors to be opened. Draco could hear faint singing coming from the auditorium and stepped closer to hear better. The person singing had a melodious voice, and was definitely male. Before he got any closer he heard the noise die down in the lobby, and he looked towards the front door. Through the glass wall he saw five black cars pull up, all with tinted windows. The crowd was silent as they watched the guards surround the cars and scan the area once more.

Draco was fascinated by the scene, as slowly a guard opened a single door to the three middle cars and Cortalioni and two women stepped out. Cortalioni was in the left car, while a woman with short black wavy hair was in the centre, and a woman with her hair pulled back in an elegant bun stepped out of the right car. The guards immediately took their positions beside the women, while Cortalioni stepped to the side to talk with one of the other guards.

Draco heard the announcement for the audience members to prepare to take their seats and walked back to Blaise. They walked up the stairs to the balcony to go to their box, but Draco could not stop wondering who those women were.

As they were seated they watched the seats fill, and everyone settle in. Draco remembered to look at his program and read the title of the play _**Le Fantôme de l'Opéra. **_He knew the basis of the play, but he never read or seen it. Instantly, his curiosity was spiked again, and he couldn't wait for the curtains to open. Draco watched as the centre doors opened and Cortlioni walked in with the women on either side. They sat in the two chairs that had been placed on either side of Cortalioni's and started a quiet conversation with the man.

"I see now why we needed to extra security." Bella spoke. Draco looked at her and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Those women are his daughters; Annalisa and Emilia. Annalisa is 25 and married to an Oil Tycoon, while Emilia is 22 and a member of the Russian Ballet company. She is engaged to some Baron she met in her travels. Cortalioni is very protective of his family." She explained. Draco regarded the women once more, and could see the resemblance they had to the Cortalioni Head. They all had the same dark eyes, and slim slightly pointed nose. Their features were a bit more rounded and feminine, but they held themselves the same way as their father.

"They sound muggle." Draco stated.

"When Annalisa attended Lombardi, she was in the visual art program. She created such magnificent works of art, and she met her husband there. He was to inherit his fathers companies, which included a large portion of the world's oil supplies. His great grandfather had foreseen the use and profit of crude oil, and started his own company and buying shares of others. He kept all his wizarding businesses going and when he passed the company onto his son, he made it boom even more. Therefore, by the time Gerino De Luca took over the company, he was producing more profit from his Oil companies than his wizarding businesses and was labelled an Oil Tycoon. Now, Emilia is different. She loved to dance, ballet being her favourite. When she attended Lombardi, she was only here for 2 years before she demanded her father let her audition for _Scuola di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala, _or in english 'La Scala Theatre Ballet school. He agreed and allowed her to audition, when she got in, he hired a private tutor to teach her magic while she did what she loved. 2 years ago she met the Baron after one of her shows, and they fell in love. He had to be introduced to the magical world, but she wouldn't have it any other way." Bella finished.

Draco was about to protest the allowance of muggle blood into the family when the lights began to flicker. Deciding to wait 'til later to voice his opinion, he sat back and looked towards the curtains. The lights finally dimmed and the audience went quiet.

Draco thought the show was excellent so far. The actors and actresses were doing a good job, the illusions were nicely done, but whoever was the Angel of Music had Draco enraptured. After the first time the mysterious voice sang, he knew it was the voice he had heard earlier. It was hypnotic in a way and he searched the stage hoping to see the singer. Finally, when the Phantom entered the stage, Draco was slightly crushed to see the mask. He wanted to see the face of this singer but had to stare at a white mask instead. When the scene finally came and his mask was torn off, he saw the scarred features underneath and recoiled.

Hopefully, the scars were done with a spell, because he could not imagine someone living their life that heavily scarred and going out in public. He understood why the Phantom now hid from other people. He was ashamed of his face, and scared of others reactions to him. If Draco's own reaction was anything to go by, than the Phantom chose wisely to stay hidden from the ridicule of normal people. The actor who portrayed him was truly phenomenal. He sang beautifully, drew the audience into his pain. When he kissed Christine and finally broke down at the end, the entire audience had silent tears while they listened to his heart wrenching sobs. When he curtains finally closed, Draco was among the many wiping tears and applauding loudly.

During the curtain call, the Phantom strode forward and removed the mask and spells. When Draco finally got to see his face he was in shock. Toni Cortalioni was standing on stage in the Phantoms costume, shyly waving to his father in the crowd. That amazing voice and performance belonged to the Cortalioni heir.

"Amazing, absolutely amazing." Bella said beside him. Draco looked over to see her glassy eyes, and huge smile. Draco had to agree with her, that Toni Cortalioni was an amazing performer. Draco returned his focus to the stage to see Toni taking his last bow, but when he moved his head the lights caught the faint image of a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Draco was reminded of something his father once told him but he couldn't quite place it. A lightning bolt scar was significant in some way but he couldn't remember why.

Draco listened as the applause went down, and then a sudden scream ripped through the air. Looking down at the pit he saw several people in black cloaks flooding the stage and seizing Toni Cortalioni. He watched in horror as Toni fought three men off before being hit with a stunner from behind. He looked towards the Cortalioni Head to see him and his daughters gone. Suddenly guards started rushing through the audience as the cloaked people dragged Toni off stage.

Beto started yelling for them to remain in the box until his guard told them it was safe to leave. Draco saw Beto rush out of the box and his guard step in. He heard whimpers from beside him and witnessed Bella, crying. Blaise had his arms wrapped around her shoulders but looked equally as terrified. The teenagers sat in the box for twenty minutes before another one of Beto's guards returned telling them it was safe to leave.

They were quickly ushered out to see the five black Cortalioni cars still in place, and the family being escorted into them. The daughters were silently crying, while their father had a stone cold mask on. They were led into separate cars before they drove off. "Why do they ride in different cars?" Draco asked. Beto was the one to answer when he walked up behind them.

"If they were in the same one it would be easier to kill the entire family at once. Spread out the assassins have to chose which one has the Head, the Heir, or simply the daughters or guards. Especially now that Toni has been kidnapped it is imperative we keep the entire family safe."

"Kidnapped?" Blaise whispered.

"Yes. The men that took him had somehow weaselled their way past the guards. When they changed shifts twenty minutes before the end of the show, the imposters had snuck into the audience and waited for the curtain call. Seeing Toni alone on stage was the perfect opportunity to snatch him. The guards didn't see it coming, and neither did I. Cortalioni was worried tonight when Toni called him saying he felt something bad was going to happen." Beto continued to explain the situation as the climbed into their own vehicle. "He was worried about his son- so he set up all the extra security measures. We swept the building but neither the imposters nor Toni could be found." He sighed at the end and dropped his head in shame. Bella still had tears streaming down her face, and Blaise looked mystified at the whole situation.

"You mean Toni knew something was going to happen?" Blaise asked.

"Cortalioni told me he received a call. Toni explained how his director woke up feeling that they would never work together again, and that he had this feeling of dread in his stomach as well. When Cortalioni tried to cancel the show, Toni said not to and that if they played their cards right they may be able to capture the culprits before anything happened. Cortalioni agreed only because he knew how much this performance meant to his son, but in the end, we could do nothing to save him."

"So where are Cortalioni and his daughters?" Draco asked.

"They are being taken to a safe house. We don't know if Toni was their main target, or just the first." With that said they pulled into the Zabini Residence and silently filed out of the car. Draco was still curious about that scar on Toni's forehead. He felt that it had some significance, but couldn't place it. Excusing himself, he left to his room to fire-call his father. He wanted to solve this one little mystery, since he knew that he wouldn't be able to help in the kidnapping. Draco couldn't say he felt bad or sorry for Toni; he was the heir to a powerful enterprise, so surely he was prepared for kidnappings and possible assassination attempts. He still felt something though, maybe a kinship to him, since Draco was also a powerful heir. He wasn't as powerful or as important as Toni, but still enough to watch his safety. Draco sighed as he bent down in front of the fireplace. It was an interesting night; first the spectacular performance, followed by the kidnapping.

He took a handful of Floo powder and through it into the flames and called out 'Malfoy Manor- Lucius' Study'. When the floating head of his father appeared, he got started.

"Hello, Father. I need to ask you something. You once told me about a boy with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead…?"

Toni had been watching the pride radiate from his Father's face when he noticed the dark figures approaching through the audience. He lowered his eyes and surveyed the situation quickly. Five hostiles were in the audience and one in each wing. When one of the five hostiles pushed a woman, she screamed alerting the rest of the audience to trouble. Toni decided his best bet would be to fight one of the hostiles in the wings and get away. Before he could turn, the five audience hostiles jumped on the stage and swarmed him. He fought off three of them before he noticed the hostile in the stage left wing join the fray. He turned to block another punch when he was hit with a stunner and everything went black.

When he woke he was in a dark room tied to a chair. His wrist, ankles, and waist were tied to the wooden chair and his mouth was gagged. 'Bloody perfect' he thought. He looked down to see himself still wearing the Phantom costume. He groaned to himself. Normally he would wear a tracer, so that if he ever were kidnapped than the hidden tracer would help the guards locate him. Since he was performing, he had removed the tracer. He hadn't expected them to strike during his curtain call, and knew that he had made a big mistake. Knowing he wouldn't be rescued anytime soon, he sat back and tried to think of possible reasons they could have kidnapped him.

He had just imagined a funny scene of ten unknown guards begging him for ballet lessons, complete with pink tutus and leotards when the door opened. He kept his eyes closed and his breathing steady, so the intruder wouldn't know he was awake. He felt the person slowly circle his chair and stop right behind him. They approached slowly and tipped his head back. They caressed his cheek and smoothed the bangs away from his forehead when they finally spoke.

"Beautiful, yet so stubborn." Toni knew that voice!

He tried to recall the owner as the person placed a kiss on his cheek. He fought hard to remain passive and keep a steady breath. He couldn't give up the game yet. Before he could remember the face to the voice he heard a sharp sound ring through the air before his face exploded in pain. He whimpered and opened his eyes to see Salvatore Moretti, Salvos father standing before him. 'Oh Shit' he thought.

Toni turned to see Salvo standing behind him, and shooting him a charming smile. He knew he was in trouble now. The Moretti's had been trying for years to ascend to the same level as the Cortalioni's. Not only had Salvo been pushing for their courtship, but his father Salvatore had been pestering Tony as well. They seemed determined to make the match, and now resorted to kidnapping.

"You have been a naughty boy, Toni." Salvatore spoke. "If you just read the note attached to the rose my son left you, this could have all been avoided." As his father spoke, Salvo leaned forward and lightly bit Toni's ear.

"I told you two years ago that you would one day be mine" Salvo whispered to him, before he bit down hard on Toni's neck. Toni managed to swallow his scream and glared daggers at the Moretti Head.

"How proud are you, Moretti, that you have to kidnap others just to get your son a date?" he spat. The Moretti Head glared at him before another loud slap bounced off the walls.

"Salvo, have your fun while I go deal with his ransom note." He sneered at Toni before striding out of them room. Toni realized that he was now left alone in a room with the man obsessed with him. To make matters worse he was tied up and had no means to defend himself. Toni felt Salvo walk to his left side and began to caress the bruised cheek.

"Oh love, why do you make him mad? Keep this up and he will ruin your pretty face." With that said, he bent down and began trailing kisses down the bruised cheek and onto his neck. Toni closed his eyes and hoped that Salvo wouldn't go too far with him.

* * *

Thank to PeruvianDarkness for the Beta job

Keep up the wonderful reviews

I do thoroughly enojy them.

Genießen!


	4. Totally F

**Totally F'ed**

Draco was sitting in Beto's study, waiting for his father to arrive. It had been two days since Toni was kidnapped, and Tony Cortalioni had a constant watch on everyone who attended the performance. The Cortalioni family had not been seen since the kidnapping, but Tony was still leading the search for his son.

Blaise had volunteered to help his Uncle in the search, while Draco was working with the team trying to find clues at the theatre. They had searched Toni's dressing room and found nothing but a rose in the garbage. Draco had mentally sneered at Toni for thinking he was above tokens of affections. Now, after sweeping the entire building and finding nothing, Draco was waiting for his father.

When Draco called Lucius the night of the kidnapping, his father had paled at the news of Toni's scar. He had ordered Draco to stay, and said he would give him more information once he had everything prepared. Draco had been confused but trusted his father. He knew the Lucius would tell him everyone once he arrived, so he wasn't worried. He was more curious about what Lucius had to prepare.

The fireplace flared, turning green and snapped Draco out of his thoughts. When Lucius stepped out of the flames, Draco hurried forward and bowed his head to his father.

"Hello Father, how have you been these last few days?"

Lucius Malfoy stepped forward and nodded his head to his son before sitting in an armchair. "Well, son, in a few moments, we will have others joining us for this conversation, so have a seat and wait." Draco sat and waited for the other guests to arrive, as his father instructed.

When the fireplace flared again, Draco watched as Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Severus Snape walked through. Draco stood and bowed to the Headmaster before retaking his seat. Sending his father an enquiring look, he sat back to listen. Pleasantries were traded around before Lucius regarded his son once more.

"Draco, two days ago you asked about a boy with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. This aroused my curiosity, and I asked if you had met him. You briefly told me about Toni Cortalioni, and his mysterious scar. Upon hearing this, I reported to Dumbledore and after talking with several members of the Order of the Phoenix, we thought it would be prudent to come and meet this boy." As Lucius finished and leaned back, Dumbledore took over.

"Yes my dear boy, we were hoping that you could arrange a meeting for us. If your father's suspicions are correct then I think we finally found what we have been searching for, for a very long time." Draco had not told his father about the kidnapping, and was wondering how best to tell the entire group. He was saved however when Beto spoke.

"I'm sorry sir, but that is not possible. Even under normal circumstances, to request a meeting with Toni Cortalioni, you would need to seek approval with his father and undergo a security check before even approaching the boy." He stated while he stepped towards the bar and made himself a drink. "Sorry, I would offer you a drink but I know neither who you are nor why you are in my home." He stated.

"Ah yes, terribly sorry Lord Zabini. I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My associates and I have come here to enquire about Young Toni Cortalioni."

"Why do you need the Cortalioni heir?" Beto questioned. Draco had grown used to the cheerful and easygoing aura that Beto usually gave off. He was even used to the hurried and stressed Beto of the last few days, but the hard and cold Beto in front of him was new.

"We believe him to be someone we have been looking for." Dumbledore answered.

"Stay here and don't leave this room." Beto commanded before he left.

Draco knew something was important about Toni, but he could not figure out what. Dumbledore looked cheerful that he would get his meeting with Toni, Minerva looked like she was thinking about something, and his father and Severus had blank masks.

After ten minutes of silence the doors to the study opened and Beto and four guards stepped in. "Follow the guards and listen to everything they tell you. Draco come with me." Draco stood and walked toward Beto and was led out of the room. He was pulled into the sitting room and thrown into the couch.

"Why did you bring that group into my home? What have you told them?" he asked

"Nothing! I told them nothing. I fire-called my father a couple days ago asking about something I heard and then he arrived today with that group, without an explanation." He explained. Draco could feel the angry pulses of magic radiating from Beto, and knew only the truth would keep him out of trouble. "I saw the Toni had a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, and I remember my father mentioning someone with that scar. I asked him about that boy he used to talk about and he told me to expect him today to explain."

"Cortalioni is not happy. We are going with that group to go speak with him now. Come, we need to get to the car." Draco followed the Zabini Head outside and into the waiting car. They drove for nearly fifteen minutes when they finally pulled up to a rusty gate and a broken vine covered stone fence. The guards stepped out and scanned the car they were following before allowing them entrance. Inside the gate was another world. The gardens were lush and there was a fountain. It looked nothing like the broken wall outside, and the large three-floored house in front of them was pure white, with a heavy double oak door.

The guards approached the first car and escorted the occupants out. Draco saw his father and the Hogwarts staff being led by a guard each. Their wands had been confiscated and were being told that they would see the Cortalioni Head, but they were not to try to leave the room, touch the Cortalioni Head, or try to reclaim their wands. If they disobeyed then the guards would not hesitate to fire spells at them.

Draco followed the group inside, while Beto walked two steps behind him. They were lead into sitting room, that was decorated with earth tones and told to wait. Five minutes later, the doors opened and four more guards entered, followed by Tony Cortalioni and his two daughters. The three sat in the armchairs facing the fire and waited. Draco noticed Cortalioni evaluating each guest, while his daughters had their hands lightly placed on their wands. Finally, Cortalioni spoke

"I have been told that this group has been asking for an audience with my son." Dumbledore spoke to answer the unasked question of 'Why'.

"Yes, we have been searching for someone for many years now. When we heard information of your son's appearance, we thought he may be the person we are looking for."

"I see." Cortalioni waved his hand, and instantly a guard stepped forward with a drink. His daughters were brought tea, and the trio exchanged looks in a silent conversation, before he spoke again, "Who is this person you seek?"

"Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter?" Cortalioni raised a single eyebrow. "I heard that he was killed. Surely you are not searching for a dead body."

"Harry Potter was taken from his Aunt's house years ago. When we discovered this, we have been searching for him ever since. We know he is not dead, because he is sent a Hogwarts letter every year." Dumbledore explained.

"When was he taken?" Cortalioni seemed to be interested in this piece of information.

"Five years ago. When we did not receive a reply to his first Hogwarts letter, we sent someone to his home, and discovered him gone." Draco watched as Cortalioni masked the flash of anger that appeared. In an instant his face was once again blank.

"Am I to understand that you believe my son to be this Harry Potter you are searching for?"

"Yes, we have been told he has black hair, green eyes, and a lightning bolt scar. That is the perfect description of Harry Potter." Dumbledore seemed to be excited that Cortalioni was not denying the claim.

Cortalioni was silent for a few minutes before he spoke. "My son is not Harry Potter, He is Antonio Cortalioni the sixth and I have raised him most of his life. Ask my daughters, they helped raise him. My family has dark hair as you can see, and he got his eye colour from his mother, who is unfortunately not with us anymore. The scar on his forehead was obtained in an accident. You have obviously made a mistake." Cortalioni explained.

"If we could just see the boy-" Dumbledore voiced.

"That is not possible at the moment." Cortalioni answered.

"Is your heir so high and mighty that he cannot find it fit to visit with such commoners." Snape finally spoke up. At his words the guards tensed and the Cortalioni women hissed.

"My heir is not an arrogant fool like you. He does not believe himself high and mighty. You would do well to never insult my son in my presence again, or you may find yourself unable to walk out of my home. As for his inability to see you, that is a family matter." That said Cortalioni and his daughters rose and left the room.

"Draco, do you know why we cannot see the young Cortalioni?" his father asked. Draco knew that he probably should tell his father but the sight of the guards warned him that to tell would be a very bad experience.

"I do father, but I am not at liberty to tell others." Beto rose and led everyone out of the house. Once back in their cars they were driven back to the Zabini Residence, and sent on their way. Draco remained to continue to help with the search, or as he told his father, to finish his vacation.

Another two days passed in the search for Toni when Draco found himself sitting down for lunch. Blaise was sitting across from him and Beto was absent. They were just finished dessert when Beto's voice rang through the house. "THEY FOUND HIM!"

Blaise and Draco leapt to their feet and ran to the entrance hall to see Bella and Beto talking to some guards. Turning around Beto spotted the boys and gave out instruction quickly. "Stay here with Bella. This is too dangerous for untrained teenagers to help." That said he whispered from hurried words to his daughter and left with the guards.

Bella led them to the sitting room and stared at the fire. She had a worried expression on her face and seemed to be debating something. "Bella, what's wrong?" Blaise finally asked.

"The rose. If only we looked into that rose more…" She whispered to no one.

"The rose he threw away?" Draco asked. "How would a fans token be of any help to finding him?"

"That's the thing. Normally if he got anything from a fan or admirer he would keep it. We knew something was off when we found the rose in the garbage, but we couldn't place it. Then yesterday they received a ransom note and it finally clicked. The rose was a clue. If we looked into it, we would have found his kidnapper right away." She whispered again.

"How so?" Blaise spoke.

"Only one person has ever sent him a red rose. Everyone else knows that he loves moon orchids, so that's what he usually gets. A red rose is only sent from Salvo Moretti."

"Who is Salvo Moretti?" Blaise again.

"He is a musician in his last year at Lombardi. He has been trying to court Toni for two years now, but has been refused. He used to send Toni a red rose every week, for three months, before Cortalioni threatened him."

"So you think This Moretti character has kidnapped Toni?" Draco asked.

"We know. The ransom note said that they would only return Toni alive, if Cortalioni agreed to write a marriage contract between Salvo and Toni." She spoke before she burst into tears.

Blaise went other side to comfort her. Draco sat in his chair contemplating everything he learned. He didn't have enough information to properly form an opinion on this matter. In Britain he knew a few families that had been forced to marry their child off after a kidnapping, but wasn't sure how that differed from Italy.

Toni closed his eyes tightly as he felt Salvo trailing one hand up and down his side. He didn't want this. He didn't want Salvo touching him intimately. He just wanted to be found, or to escape so he could curse the bastard. Was it too much to ask for an escape plan to fall into his lap so he could kick the shit out of this pervert?

It had been the same for the last few days. Salvo would enter and remove his gag. He would force feed Toni, and then clean him up. Once that was done, he would spend 'private' time with the young heir. Salvo liked to kiss him and leave marks all over his neck and chest. No matter how much Toni pleaded Salvo never stopped until he left a significant amount of hickies across his torso.

He never went further, which relieved Toni to no end, but he still felt dirty after Salvo's visits. The first night Salvo had stripped him of his cloak, and shirt, so that every time he looked down he saw his handiwork, displayed proudly on the young heir's chest. He would stroke each mark and kiss them before leaving for a few hours. The same process would repeat for lunch and dinner.

Toni was only allowed to the bathroom twice a day. He was escorted by some of Salvatore's minions and watched the entire time he was in the bathroom. On the walk there his legs would be unbound, and in the bathroom they would unbind his arms, but first bind his legs to the side of the stall. They thought of almost everything to prevent him escaping. They had placed a magic restraining bracelet on his wrist and had at least three henchmen stationed around in case he attacked.

Once he was done, he would be bound to the chair and left to wait for Salvo. At night he barely slept, and during the day could do nothing but glare. He knew that his father and men, were searching everywhere for him, but their chances of finding him were slim unless they found that rose.

Toni figured that if he wasn't found in another day than he would escape himself. The bracelet was made for a wizard for normal levels of power. Toni did not have a normal amount of magic. As soon as it was placed on him, he directed the magic that could not be restrained to slowly eat away at it. It was almost done, and he just needed Salvo to unbind his arms so he could act.

Seeing Salvo enter he knew he should start his plan. When he sat down and removed the gag he finally spoke non-harsh words to the bigger boy. "Salvo, I would like to feed myself today. I promise to eat everything and not attack you." Toni never lied. It was something he learned at the Dursley's, and carried to the Cortalioni household.

He watched as Salvo considered his words and finally responded. "I will un-tie one arm and you can use that to eat." He said. He removed the binds from his left arm, and lifted the tray so he could reach the food. Toni slowly ate the food and looked at Salvo the entire time. When he finished Salvo sat the tray down and went to bind his arm again but he spoke up.

"Please don't. I want to feel you today during private time."

Salvo shot him a surprised look at his request, but quickly agreed. Salvo leaned forward and started kissing him, and for the first time since he was kidnapped, Toni responded. He raised his arm and ran his fingers through Salvo's hair and caressed his neck the entire time. When Salvo finally pulled away to leave he looked ecstatic at the smaller boys actions. Quickly Salvo bound his arm again and left the room with a happy smile on his face.

The same process repeated for dinner and Salvo could not have been more pleased with himself. Toni felt bad for misleading the boy, but that was overruled by his determination to escape. Besides, the boy had kidnapped him, and was trying to force him to get married.

The next morning for breakfast, Toni asked if both his arms could be un-tied. Salvo happily agreed and they repeated the same actions as the night before. When Salvo left, Toni closely watched the door to count the number of guards outside.

During breakfast and dinner, there was the largest amount of men guarding him. He figured it was because during the day, more minions were needed for nefarious tasks, or they believed he wouldn't try to escape during the daylight. When lunch came, Salvo didn't even wait before releasing Toni arms and letting him eat. Once he placed the tray down, he straddled Toni and began kissing him again.

Toni brought his hands under Salvos shirt, and used his nails to scratch down the other boys back, and felt the shivers he caused. He brought one hand up to massage Salvo's neck, and placed the other on the boys stomach. He used his thumb to rub small circles on Salvos stomach and slowly lowered his hand. Salvo was so distracted that when felt the hand leaving his neck and running up his thigh he only moaned. He started kissing with more passion and only felt the sensation of Toni's hand slithering into his pocket. When he started grinding his hips down, Toni wrapped both his arms around the boy and pulled his closer.

Seeing that Salvo was properly distracted, he raised a hand and guided Salvo to his neck. The boy eagerly began biting and licking and didn't hear Toni as he began casting spells quietly. He had one arm around Salvos waist, using the wand and the other pining Salvo against his chest and neck. He quickly released the ropes binding his legs, and waist to the chair to the chair, and banished them. He cast a recording charm and brought salvo up again to kiss him. He began moaning into Salvo's mouth and that only spurred the other boy on. Pulling away from the kiss he leaned his head back and pretended to breath in short breaths while using another spell to project that sound into the hall for the guard to hear.

Once he finished and Salvo was still distracted attacking his chest he readied himself and pushed the other boy off. Salvo stumbled back, fell, and gave Toni a confused look, before he raised the wand and stunned the boy. He proceeded to bind Salvo to the chair and gag him before cancelling the sound spell and making noise, as if salvo were finished. He observed Salvo enough to mimic him properly.

He positioned himself by the door and knocked twice to let the guard know he was ready to leave. When the guard opened the door, he stunned him and pulled him inside the room. Looking for any more guards, and finding none, he took the guard's keys and wand, and locked him in with Salvo.

Toni didn't know the layout of this prison, so he carefully and silently manoeuvred around the hallways and doors. He discovered that he had been kept in a small corner of the basement; just off from the wine cellar, and proceeded to move between the wine shelves and boxes. He heard some hurried footsteps above, and some scuffling, but decided it wasn't important until he got to the top of the stairs.

When the noises stopped, he slowly ascended the stairs and stopped at the door. When he still didn't hear anything, he turned the handle and silently opened the door a fraction to peek out. Seeing no one in the hall he opened the door wide enough to poke his head out and searched for cameras. Seeing none, he stepped out and walked along the wall down the hall.

He had just rounded a corner when the door in front of him opened. Toni swore before the person stepped out and he came face to face with his father. "Papa?" he said quietly.

"TONI!" his Papa yelled before he was being crushed in his father's strong arms.

"Dad. I'm feeling glad to see you, but I need to breath." He said into his Papa's chest.

Tony pulled away from his son and finally noticed the bruised lips and cheek, and bites across his sons' neck and chest, and saw red.

"What did those BASTARDS do to you?" he raged. Toni placed a comforting hand on his father's arm before speaking.

"Papa, it's okay. I managed to get Salvos wand and subdue him and the guard. They're locked up downstairs." He saw the small gleam of pride in his father's eye before he spoke.

"I'm proud of you son, but how did you escape?"

"Um. . ." Toni's face began to heat up as he was placed under his father's calculating gaze. "Well I did as you taught me, and improvised with the tools I was given." That was a safe answer right? He wouldn't have to tell his father that he made out with Salvo and seduced him into giving up his wand.

Seeing his son's embarrassed face, Tony decided to let the matter drop. "I'm proud of you son, but let's get out of here and I will tell you of how I came to be here."

Toni followed his father outside, where a guard gave him a sweater to cover himself. He was ushered into a car and taken away, while his father supervised the round up of the kidnappers with the Italian wizard squad. Once he got home he was smothered by his sisters, and finally allowed to shower and change.

When his papa arrived home, he told Toni of how they got the ransom note form Salvatore, the night before, they instantly began searching all the Moretti residences. When they turned up nothing, they began contemplating a marriage contract, when Beto said one his charges suggested checking the properties under Salvo's mothers name. When a scout reported back, that in one of the Tutor houses they were searching, they spotted Salvatore and Salvo.

He assembled his men and just after breakfast they attacked the house. After a quick fight, Salvatore was restrained and they began looking for Toni. His Papa had been on his way to organize a party to search the basement when he had run into Toni, and the whole ordeal was over. Toni had quickly suggested they go to Beto's Manor and properly thank the person who suggested searching the other residences. Tony agreed and after a small family dinner, they changed and left.

Beto had returned home mid afternoon, and informed the teenagers that Toni had been rescued. After they discovered who took them they searched all the Moretti residences and buildings and found nothing. When he returned in the early hours of the morning and saw Draco in the sitting room, he told him of the situation, and Draco suggested they check the mother's residences. Beto had latched onto the idea, and informed Cortalioni right away. They sent out scout parties and during breakfast when word of Salvatore being spotted came back, he had been overjoyed.

Now Beto and the teenagers were relaxing in the recreation room, when a house elf popped in. "Sorry to disturb you Master Beto, but Tizzy is here to inform you that Master Cortalioni, Young Master Cortalioni and Mistresses Cortalioni is in the entrance hall."

"Thank you Tizzy, if you could please escort them. . ." Before he could finish the doors to the recreation room opened and admitted the Cortalioni family.

"No worries Beto, were here already. Thank you Tizzy for telling us where to find them." Tony Cortalioni turned his attention from the elf to Beto. "Ah, Beto. I dare say that you may be growing sick of seeing my face, with how much time you have spent in my presence these last few days."

Beto laughed before greeting the Cortalioni Head. "Never Tony, if I haven't gotten sick of it by now, than I fear I may never get the opportunity." He then turned to the rest of the family. "Miss Annalisa, and Miss Emilia, a pleasure to see you again and might I say you are both as beautiful as ever. Master Toni, I am pleased to see your safe return. I hope that Salvo did not do anything too unpleasant while you were held captive."

Draco watched as Toni blushed deeply at the mention of being in Salvos captivity. He regarded the young heir further to see a bruised cheek and red bite marks running down his neck. Remembering that Bella, told him that Salvo was obsessed with Toni, he starting putting the pieces together. Seeing that Toni was here and not hiding in some corner crying, he figured that Salvo didn't progress to far.

"Thank you Beto, I appreciate your concern and in your debt for all the time and effort you placed in the search for me." Seeing his father going to the bar and his sisters moving to speak with Bella, he continued on. "I am here actually to meet your guest, that made the suggestion, which resulted in my finding."

Beto smiled and led him over to Blaise and Draco at the chess table. "Toni I would like to introduce my nephew Blaise, and his friend Draco. Draco was the one to make the suggestion." Draco saw the spark of recognition in the boys face and leaned forward.

"It is nice to see you again Mr. Zabini, Mr Malfoy. I would like to extend my gratitude to you Mr. Malfoy for the wonderful suggestion that resulted in my rescue. I am indebted to you, and cannot say Thank you enough." Draco quickly stood and stepped away from the young heir. He was still sore about last year and how this arrogant prat seemed to have forgotten the entire incident.

"Yes well I'm glad that you only show manners when someone saves your life. Then again why does a Hero need to have manners when everyone worships them. Save your gratitude _Potter_ I don't need it." After saying his bit and sneering, Draco turned and left the room, ignoring the stunned expression on everyone's face.

Draco walked away from the recreation room, and walked quickly to his room. He had not meant to call the Cortalioni heir Potter, in fact he hardly believed that the actor could be the Saviour, but he knew that sometimes his mouth worked against him. Berating himself for saying such things, he flopped on his bed and buried his head, under his pillow.

Down in the recreation room, the Cortalioni's were having a fierce debate. Beto had escorted Bella, and Blaise out of the room, to give the family privacy, while secretly hoping that Tony would not demand Draco be punished for his words. One Cortalioni upset was bad enough to deal with, but seeing the looks of murder on Annalisa, and Emilia's faces, did not bode well for the Malfoy boy.

Toni had questioned his father on how that boy knew whom he originally was, and was told the tale of the British guests. Tony wanted to oblivate the others and hurt the Malfoy heir, Annalisa suggested that Harry go to Hogwarts, and Emilia wanted to take Toni back to Russia and keep him safe. Toni was silent as he filed, all the information he learned about the guests, in his mind.

Finally, after half an hour, Tony caved and decided Toni would go to Hogwarts, but have a heavy guard at all times and that Annalisa would check up on him bi-weekly. Toni would finish the last two months at Lombardi and then transfer to Hogwarts for September first. Toni agreed, on the condition he be allowed to take the A.A.W.T's (Advanced Arts Wizardry Tests) during the summer. Settling on a game plan the family took their leave and returned home.

* * *

The story will pick up after this.

Thank you to PeruvianDarkness for the beta

Thank you to all the awesomer reviewers

Keep reviewing it makes me smile.

Genießen!


	5. Mama Who Bore Me

_**Mama Who Bore Me**_

Five days after the whole kidnapping and Malfoy affair, Toni was in the music room, absently drumming his fingers against his Cello when Emilia walked in. Toni and Emilia had always been close-closer than he was with Annalisa. Emilia had instantly welcomed him into the family, and started smothering him with affection, clothes and toys. She had been the one to encourage him to pursue theatre when he mentioned his interest, and supported every decision he made. Now, he was grateful that she was also supporting his choice to return to the U.K.

"Toni, could we talk for a few minutes?" Emilia asked, as she approached the young heir.

"What's on your mind, Em?"

"Are you sure you want to go to Hogwarts. I will support you either way, but I don't want you to go just because you feel like it's an obligation. Yes, they have found you, but you don't have to return." Toni stared at her earnest face before replying.

"Em, I know Father put them off my trail for a little bit, but you have heard all the information that he has gathered, about the state of affairs over there. Lord Voldy is back, terrorizing the wizarding world. If the rumours are true and I am the only one able to stop him, then I have to try. Not only for you, Lisa, and Father, but for my biological parents, and all the innocents who will get caught in this war." Seeing that his sister was taking in everything he said he continued.

"I know you worry about me, and I think that if this Dumbledore character is truly hell-bent on finding me, then I can easily arrange for him to set up special training classes. Since I won't have rehearsal or practice, than I can dedicate my free time to becoming stronger. Plus, with all the guards Papa is planning to send with me, I should be fine." Emilia took a deep breath and sighed, knowing that Toni would continue on this path.

"Okay Toni, I will try and visit you while you are there, and don't you slack on your instruments! I expect you to practice at least ten hours a week, and keep up your grades!" she demanded. Toni laughed and hugged his older sister, before returning his focus to his abandoned Cello.

Emilia sat beside her brother for twenty minutes, listening to him play, before she stood and swept out of the room to talk with their father once more. She knew no one could change Toni's mind, but that didn't mean he had to forget his life here. She would make sure that Toni was allowed all his musical instruments, and permission to practice them. She didn't know the rules regarding music at Hogwarts, but she was a Cortalioni and she would ensure that Toni be comfortable at school. After all, no-one said 'No' to a Cortalioni.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office when the wards alerted him to a guests at the front gate. Noting eight people, he quickly firecalled Minerva and Severus to accompany him. The three met in the entrance hall, and proceeded to walk to the gates to greet the guests. Whomever Dumbledore had been expecting, the Cortalioni family was not them.

Dumbledore managed to stop himself from gaping, and greeted the family. He invited them to his office to discuss whatever business that had, while subtly trying to glimpse the young man that was hidden under the hood of his emerald cloak. Dumbledore led the group into his office, and conjured several chairs, and but still focussed most of his attention on the hooded boy.

"Well Mr. Cortalioni-"

"Lord." Cortalioni interrupted the headmaster.

"Excuse me?" Albus asked. He was surprised to be interrupted.

"I am Lord Cortalioni, and Head of all the Italian Magic Families. You will address me accordingly. Even though I am not in my own country, it does not mean I lose my title or the respect that goes with it." Cortalioni stated. Dumbledore corrected himself and continued.

"Lord Cortalioni, my apologies, but would you or any of your company like tea?"

"No, we are here on business, so shall skip right to that." Dumbledore thought that he heard a snicker from the hooded boy, but pushed it aside, to listen to the Italian Lord.

"Well, then… please begin." Dumbledore noticed Severus discretely glance at the hooded boy as well, but Minerva was too distracted by the aristocratic women sitting near her, fingering their wands.

"You called to my manor, the other day searching for Harry Potter. You stated that my son Toni was him, and that you had been searching for the missing boy for five years. I instantly denied your claim, because I do not trust you around my son. After discussing this further with my son, he has convinced my family to allow you the privilege of the truth." Cortalioni appeared to have a bitter taste in his mouth when he spoke the last sentence, but quickly resumed his blank mask.

"The truth?" Dumbledore prompted. Cortalioni shot him a glare for his actions, and took a few moments before speaking gain.

"Yes. My son Antonio Cortalioni was adopted. His former name was Harry Potter, but when he was five, I found him being abused in his Uncle's house, so I took him to Italy." A gasp was heard as Minerva covered his mouth with her hand. Severus maintained his blank mask, but Dumbledore lost some of his twinkle.

"Abused? Surely you were mistaken? I might also have to have Harry turned back over to his Aunt and Uncle. They miss him terribly." Dumbledore said. Instead of getting the reaction he was hoping for the Lord merely laughed.

"Yes, he was abused, and whatever you may claim, you cannot take him from me. When I returned to Italy, I had a lawyer draw and file papers that declared the former guardians of Mr. Potter void. Then I took over temporary guardianship, until the legal paperwork was signed for his adoption."

It seemed that Minerva had finally lost her patience and asked a question she had been holding in, and seeing the pause in conversation, presented a perfect opportunity. "Why were we not allowed to meet your son when we visited your home?"

"I was kidnapped and being held hostage when you were over." The hooded boy spoke. His voice was low and they barely heard him.

"This is why I don't trust you with my son." Cortalioni stated, while gesturing to the staff. The Lord stood while he spoke again. "You don't have sufficient staff to protect him. Come, I do not trust this man, and will not allow you to stay in his presence, Toni." Everyone watched as the hooded boy reached out a hand and stilled the Lord. The Hogwarts staff were surprised when a soft melodious voice that spoke, now that they could properly hear it.

"Papa, please." The Lord stopped and returned to his seat.

"Unfortunately, my son, wants to attend Hogwarts for his final year. However, we have several requests." Cortalioni motioned with his hand for his son to take over. The Hogwarts Staff instantly placed their focus on the hooded boy. They had been curious to his appearance since none of them had ever seen him. They could picture several different possibilities, but none seemed to fit the melodious voice they heard. They watched as the figure reached up and dropped his hood to reveal a boy with shaggy black hair, and large bright green eyes.

"If I am to come to this school, and help with your war, then I will need special training classes. Also, my Father will meet and question all Hogwarts staff. I will have a security team with me at the school, and one of my sisters will be making a bi-weekly check in. I am to be allowed to leave the grounds when I need to, and I will only take 4 classes. Finally, I will be bringing my instruments, and require a practice room."

The staff were shocked at the requests, and how the boy had such a commanding voice. He spoke and left no room for disagreement, and kept a blank mask. Most of the requests seemed reasonable, and semi expected, but the instruments threw them all off. Many pureblood children played at least one musical instrument, but they never needed nor cared for a practice room. Dumbledore took charge and spoke for the entire staff.

"My dear boy, what do you mean 'If'? And why do you need a practice room. Other students have never needed a practice room and they play music as well. One last thing- I don't believe I can grant your father permission to interrogate my staff!" Dumbledore needed this boy, but he would not allow him to run things. He needed the upper hand, and by denying certain desires, then he could ensure that remained the one in control of the entire situation.

"I play several instruments, and I do not intend to fall behind in my mastery because you cannot be bothered to make a practice room. My attendance at this school is still undecided, but if you deny my father from speaking with all members of your staff, than we will return to Italy, and you can fight this war without my help." Toni knew that he won, when the Headmaster paled at his words, but he also knew that he had a few more protests to hear from the aged wizard.

"I do not like giving special privileges to students. In my eyes, all students are equal. Also I do not see what benefit you father will gain from questioning my staff. I can vouch for each and every member, and trust them with the youth in my care." Dumbledore was searching for a chance to regain control. He was hoping that some of Harry's parents would come through, and the boy would agree with him to help the greater good.

"I am not an ordinary student of this school. You wish to use me as a weapon to help you fight, and therefore I demand my wishes be met. As for your staff… well, we disagree on them. I have reports that in what would have been my first year, the DADA professor was possessed by Lord Voldy, the year after, you had an incompetent fool who allowed a student to be killed in his care, the next you had a werewolf on staff and an escaped convict on the grounds. Finally, the years after that you have had under your employ, an ex-Auror that was dismissed from duty for several questionable offenses." Dumbledore watched as the boy placed several folders on his desk, each containing a photo of the past DADA professors.

"Also, since I know you are struggling to regain power in this conversation I will end with this warning. If you do not grant all the requests made today, I will return to Italy, and let the Daily Prophet know that the Leader of the Light lost the Saviour because he refused to allow him to play music at school. I will spin a tale that will destroy your image in the eyes of the public. They're simple requests really, you should just accept them and we can move on. Now we are done here, if you have changed you mind then you may owl my father. Good day." With that the entire Cortalioni family, and guards stood and left the room.

Dumbledore sat in a state of shock at the boy's words. He looked innocent and angelic sitting in that chair, but when he spoke he was just like his father. Albus regarded his two trusted teachers and waited for them to make their opinion known. Severus spoke first.

"Well Minerva, I don't think he will be a Gryffindor." Albus watched as his Potions Master laughed to himself. "Well, I say grant the boy everything, and be done with it." Severus then walked out and left the other two to their musings.

" I agree with Severus. We can't afford to lose Potter, and if it means his father talks to the staff and he gets a practice room, then so be it." Dumbledore watched as his headmistress left as well to attend to the students.

He sighed to himself and contemplated how he had lost so much control in the entire situation. He had lost Harry when he was little, and now he was going to lose him again if he didn't adhere to Lord Cortalioni and his heir. In addition, he couldn't afford the scandal that Harry would cause if he did go to the papers. No, he needed to let the Cortalioni family win this round. After all, it was merely a small battle, but Albus would win the war by gaining full control of Harry Potter.

Three months later, when July rolled around, Toni was entering Diagon Alley. He had barely made it to the front gate of Hogwarts before he received an owl from Dumbledore granting his wishes. Now he was in London, to buy his school supplies and he was bored. He had never been to Diagon Alley before but it was nothing like the marketplace in Florence. Florence was much classier, and exciting.

Beto had arranged for his nephew Blaise, to escort Toni and his father around, but even with all the enthusiasm the boy was forcing, nothing could excite Toni. The Alley was literally a wide Alley, with shops on either side. The streets were overcrowded and the shops bursting with people. Toni silently wondered how anyone got any shopping done.

Blaise led them to get school robes first. When they entered they were greeted by a Middle aged, woman. She quickly positioned the boys on stools, and began measuring.

"Which house dear?" she asked Toni.

"House?"

"Yes dear, which house are you in. I need to know for your robes." She explained. Toni looked towards Blaise for an answer.

"Hogwarts has four different houses. Once you get sorted, then the house crest will be on your robe, so everyone knows which one you belong to." Toni had listened to Blaise's explanation but he didn't know how he felt about being categorized. At Lombardi's, the first four years, you had to live in residence with the other students, but after you were free to move home as long as you had a way to class every day. The females had one building, while the males had a separate apartment building.

"What if I don't want to be sorted into a house?" he asked.

Instead of Blaise answering, the seamstress piped up instead. "Oh honey, everyone is sorted! I will leave your robes blank since clearly you are a transfer student, and your head of house can magic the crest and colours on later." Toni raised an eyebrow at Blaise.

"Everyone is sorted. You will have to try on a hat and it will announce which house you best fit in. There is Slytherin who are cunning and ambitious, Gryffindor who are brave and irrational, Ravenclaw that studious and anti-social, and Hufflepuff the loyal and slow house." Toni knew which house Blaise belonged to, but still didn't want to be sorted and labelled. In his own mind he was still a Lombardi student, that was merely visiting Hogwarts.

"Papa." He called. When his Father appeared around the curtain, Toni turned towards him. "Students are sorted into one of four houses. I think it's time we sent our mid-summer request to the Headmaster, and tell him that I won't be sorted and I require my own apartment within the castle. You could also suggest that it would be more beneficial since he can add the practice room right on."

Toni didn't like acting all arrogant aristocratic prodigy, but he needed to send a message to Dumbledore that he was not under his control and that he would not be pushed around. His father explained that by acting this way towards the Headmaster, than he projected an independent and calculating mind. His demands were merely tests for the Headmaster, and that it was understood where Toni stood in the chain of command. He could not show weakness to the Headmaster or his enemies, so if he had to act demanding , he would.

He watched as his father smirked at the suggestion, and readily approved of the idea. Yes he needed to send a message to Dumbledore, but another reason Toni didn't want to be sorted, was because that sharing a dorm with others would increase his likelihood of being attacked again. So he roomed alone, and away from potential threats.

Finishing the robe fitting, the group went and bough the rest of their school supplies, before they ran into Draco Malfoy. The boys had just left the Apothecary, while Lord Cortalioni was talking to the shopkeeper, when they heard someone say 'Blaise'. Turning they saw Draco waiting beside the store, and staring intently at Toni.

"Blaise, you did not tell me you would be babysitting today." Draco said. Toni honestly did not understand what he had done to so overly offend the boy.

"Draco, I wasn't expecting to see you today. Uncle Beto asked me to help the Cortalionis around Diagon Alley, while Toni here got his school supplies. He is transferring to Hogwarts." Toni could tell that Blaise, was trying to use a calming tone, to avoid any arguments.

"Thrilling. Tell me, Cortalioni, why the switch?" Draco asked while never taking his eyes off him.

"Change of scenery." Toni said in a neutral voice.

"Did your fan club lose interest? Or did Daddy fail to buy you lead role this year?" Draco sneered at him.

Toni was slowly getting angry at this boy. He had no right to say that his father paid for Toni to get the lead. He didn't know anything about his former life. He really just wanted the boy to accept whatever happened and move on, has he never heard of forgive and forget.

"Mr. Malfoy, I do not know what I did to offend you so much that you continue to act rude and condescending around me. I have apologized, and hoped that we could move on, but from your childish behaviour, I can see that you are not mature enough to talk to. If you will excuse me, I will be on way and will attempt to avoid your presence for the rest of the day." With that said, Toni turned and walked back in the shop.

"Draco what is your problem? Shit, man, but you're always such an arse around Toni." Blaise said.

"I honestly don't know. I see him and my head gets all jumbled and next thing I know insults are flying out of my mouth, and I can't stop them." Draco looked slightly mortified at his actions, and made a quick exit.

Toni stood by his father, while he watched Draco leave. Knowing that in six weeks he would have to see the blonde again, he sighed, and tried to prepare himself for a year of insults from the boy.

September first rolled around faster than he thought it would. He had passed with straight O's on his A.A.W.T's for Acting, Improvisation, Cello, Violin, Piano, and singing. Now he was sitting in a compartment by himself, and waiting for the train to finally leave. He watched the families say good-bye to their children, and as said children loaded trunks and animals on board. His own father had dropped him off early, and had the entire train scouted before he allowed him to board. They had a pep talk and then his father left.

Toni was pulled out of his thoughts from a whistle, and felt the train jerk and then moving forward. Thinking about Lombardi, he realized that they would probably be in the middle of try outs for the Christmas concert. Looking down as his violin case, he pulled it towards him and opened it to reveal his all black violin.

Toni quickly tuned the violin and stood while he decided what to play. Recalling Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor RV356, he played a few scales, before closing his eyes and playing from memory. He swayed and moved with the music while he played. Vivaldi was his favourite, and he had spent the summer when he was ten trying desperately to play this piece perfectly from memory. The piece wasn't hard to play, but he wanted Vivaldi's work to sound perfect.

He imagined a second violin being added, and then pictured himself on stage, with an entire orchestra behind him. He saw ribbons of different colour light, floating around, and how they changed depending on the emotions in the piece. He continued to play and move, in his own world, and failed to notice the blonde staring at him through the compartment window. Playing the last note, Toni took a deep breath before starting to play another song, while the blonde stood transfixed outside his door.

As with theatre, whenever Toni played he projected the light ribbons outwards, and they danced around him, for everyone to see, while he played. He was so focussed on his music, that when he started Paganini Caprice No.24 in A minor; the ribbons instantly became thicker, and floated closer to the floor, before rising and falling, in the appropriate parts.

Toni furrowed his brow, and he had to try a little harder at remembering the piece, but soon was moving, the same as he had the Vivaldi. He didn't know why he chose to play this after the Vivaldi, but he sensed he should try something harder, and show off a bit. Finishing the piece, he slowly opened his eyes and met the silver ones outside his compartment.

Toni was surprised that he had an audience, but was more shocked that it was Draco Malfoy who was standing outside listening to him. Without a word, he opened the door and gestured for the other boy to enter. He watched as the blonde entered and closed the door before speaking.

"That was beautiful. I haven't heard Paganini in a while. You truly are talented." Toni noticed that the boy seemed to have struggled a bit admitting that. Taking pity, and deciding to ignore all previous insults from the boy he smiled.

"Thank you. Do you like Paganini? I think I have the sheet music for La Campanella, in my violin case." He offered. Toni watched as the surprised shone in the other boy's eyes before he covered it.

"I would love to hear you play." Toni nodded before taking out his wand and conjuring a music stand, and retrieving the sheet music. He re-tuned his violin and placed a folder of Paganini's compositions on the seat beside Draco. Once he was set up, he looked ever the music quickly, and then raised his violin. One deep breath later, he began, but kept his eyes open and ignored the ribbons of light dancing around him.

When he finished, he looked at Draco, to see him watching him with a strange expression on his face. Feeling anxious, Toni randomly grabbed another piece and set up to play concerto No.6 in E minor. Some quick adjustments and he was set. He loved playing and rarely had a captive audience, so he decided until Draco was fed up, he would just keep going. Moreover, Paganini was his second favourite composer after Vivaldi.

Toni only played two more songs before he set down his violin. While gathering all the scattered sheet music, and organizing he jumped when he heard Draco speak.

"What is its name?" he asked.

"Whose name?" Toni looked at him curiously

"I heard musicians name their instruments. So what did you name your violin?" he asked.

"Dionysus. His divine mission was to mingle the music of the aulos and to bring an end to worry, but I decided that the violin would work just as well as a reed instrument." Toni sent Draco a small smile, before he finished cleaning up. He didn't know where he stood with the boy, so he didn't want to push the conversation.

"You're really talented on the violin. At least that's something daddy didn't have to buy you." Toni turned around to see Draco leaving the compartment. He was confused on how to react to his words. Deciding to forget the entire incident, he pulled down his robes and changed.

When he arrived at the school, after riding in one of the boats, he couldn't want to eat. He was starving and tired. He waited in the ante-chamber, while the first years were sorted, and then McGonagall returned to lead him in the hall.

"Attention students. We have a new addition to our student body. Harry Potter has recently decided to attend Hogwarts and forego the private tutors this year." Toni raised an eyebrow at the statement. Apparently in a bid to regain control, Dumbledore decided to use his former name and the rumour that he wasn't missing, just training. Knowing he should put a stop to this, he stepped into the hall and interrupted the Headmaster.

"Actually Headmaster Dumbledore, My name is Antonio Cortalioni, and I attended Lombardi School of Music and Magic. I would like to be addressed by my legal name." Toni raised a challenging eyebrow at the Headmaster as he waited for Dumbledore's next move.

"Ah, Mr. Cortalioni, my apologies. I thought that perhaps while back in your motherland, that you would like to be addressed by your birth name. However, we must sort young Toni." Dumbledore clapped his hands together and gestured towards a stool, with a raggedy hat.

"It's alright, Headmaster, but for future reference I would prefer to be addressed as Master Cortalioni by all members of the staff and student body." Toni sent a challenging look to all members at the head table before returning his focus to Dumbledore. "Oh, and Headmaster, I believe that I specified that I do not wish to be sorted, and I require my own apartment with appropriate additions." Toni watched as the smile on the Headmasters face fell into a frown.

"Ah, but my boy, all students must be sorted." He tried again.

"But, my dear _old man, _I have your written consent and the consent of the school governors to reside in my own apartment and not be sorted." Toni watched the flash of anger appear in the Headmasters eyes, and internally laughed. Toni did not want to act like this but the Headmaster was still trying to play his ridiculous games and win.

"Right my boy, right, I forgot I allowed you special permission." Toni had to struggle to hold in his laughter as the Headmaster tried to save face. He nodded to Dumbledore and scanned the hall for a place to sit.

Toni ignored the various looks sent his way as he scanned the tables. He spotted Blaise, but the boy was seated beside Draco, and he didn't know how he felt about seeing the boy so soon. He noticed a fairly open space at a table with a blue crest and walked over to sit by himself. He gently placed his violin, which he had carried into the hall, under the table and sat down, waiting for the meal.

The students around him gave him various calculating looks, which he ignored and turned his focus back to Dumbledore. Toni half listened as the Headmaster said the start of term announcements. When the food appeared, Toni gracefully filled his plate with the appropriate amounts of food from each food group, and began to eat.

When he finished desert he watched as McGonagall approached his table to escort him to his new rooms. He followed the woman out of the hall and decided he would play Danse Macabre, tonight, since it fit his imagination of the year to come.

* * *

Thanks to PeruvianDarkness

and many thanks to all my loyal fans and reviewers

You are all truly amazing

Genießen!


	6. Believe

_**Believe**_

Toni sighed as he waited in an alcove outside the Great Hall. He has spent the night exploring his apartment, and had to admit it was nice. It was located beside the kitchens and included his practice room, a bathroom, a small library, living room and a bedroom. He spent an hour playing his violin, then thirty minutes on his Cello before he showered and got ready for bed. He had lain awake staring at the ceiling for awhile, thinking of his friends back home, and how much he missed them. He knew this year's play would be Oscar Wilde's 'An Ideal Husband' and was slightly glad he would miss out on that one. He had nothing against Wilde, but he preferred performing plays with more action, and more variety of characters.

Now he was standing hiding outside the Great Hall, trying to figure out what to do for breakfast when a voice broke his musings.

"Umm. . . Harry?"

Toni turned and sent a glare at the girl who addressed him by his former name. She was the same height as he, had bushy brown hair and large front teeth. She wore Gryffindor robes, and the Head Girl badge. She seemed confident when he turned around and continued speaking.

"My name is Hermione Granger, and I would like to welcome you to Hogwarts. I would also like to invite you to sit with me at the Gryffindor table. I know you have no friends as of yet and thought it would be kind to introduce you to the right sort of people here at Hogwarts."

Toni raised a single eyebrow at her. Was she serious? She had basically insulted him, saying he could not judge people's character by himself and treated him like an incompetent child. She sounded arrogant and bossy and he instantly disliked her. Before he could respond another voice spoke up.

"Really, Granger, the 'right sort'? If you mean those disgusting lions you live with, then I question your judgement. If anything _Antonio Cortalioni_ would prefer to be with people he can hold an intelligent conversation with." Draco Malfoy drawled.

Toni was glad that someone remembered his true name, but was still upset it was Malfoy. Once again before he could speak and third person spoke.

"Mione! What is taking so long? I am starving." Toni looked up to see a tall redhead, covered in freckles standing behind Granger.

"Ron, just wait! I'm talking to Harry!" Granger screeched at the redhead.

"Ah, Weasel, how lovely of you to join us. I was just saying to the Mudblood that Cortalioni would prefer to sit at Slytherin today, since he has been introduced to Blaise before. And we all know that familiarity in a new place should be encouraged." Toni didn't know what was the deal between these three, but decided to just watch the scene unfold.

"Shut up before I make you, Ferret!" The Weasel character threatened Malfoy. Malfoy for his part ignored the red faced male and returned his focus to Toni.

"Well, Cortalioni, what do you say to sitting with the snakes for breakfast?" Toni opened his mouth, but was interrupted again before he could speak.

"I was just about to ask Harry to sit with us. I heard that he was really good at magic performance and wanted to ask if he could tutor me in the art." Granger spoke up.

Toni snapped his attention to Granger at her request. The school should only know that he played music, since he carried his violin last night. Narrowing his eyes, Toni instantly knew that this girl was working for Dumbledore. Only Malfoy and Blaise knew that he performed and he highly doubted they would tell the Gryffindors that fact.

"I would be happy to teach you about theatre, Granger." Toni saw the suspicion on Malfoy's face, before he continued. He would send guards to investigate Granger and the redhead later, "There's an empty room three doors down, in that corridor, " Toni pointed to his left " that we could meet in at say… seven tonight?" he enquired.

Toni saw the slight look of triumph she sent Malfoy's way before she responded.

"Oh Harry, Ron and I can't wait! We shall see you at seven, but now… about sitting with us for breakfast? "Toni was really getting annoyed with being interrupted all the time when Malfoy spoke up.

"Yes, Cortalioni, I am also fascinated with your performing abilities. I hope you don't mind if Blaise and I join your little class tonight?" Malfoy drawled.

"Not at all, but as for my seating arrangements, seeing as breakfast is nearly over, I think I will grab some toast and head to potions." Toni quickly made an exit and stepped in the hall. He had got his schedule last night so he didn't have to worry about his Head of House handing it to him. He stopped at the Hufflepuff table and grabbed some fruit and toast, before turning around and leaving for class.

Potions was a fairly interesting class, though Snape seemed to criticize him more than others but, since he had no house, he couldn't lose any points. After that, he had a free period in which he chose to retire to him rooms and then lunch. Toni decided the kitchens were a safer choice than braving that Great Hall, and found out from a House Elf that tickling the pear would grant him entrance.

He spent an enjoyable lunch period talking with the House Elves and learning about secret passageways before he gathered his things and went to charms. Toni found that he enjoyed the little charms professors, and looked forward to his classes.

Toni retired to his rooms again after class. He didn't have to worry about Transfiguration or Defence Against the Dark Arts until later, so he settled down to finish his homework and play a song or two on his violin. When he finished playing, he looked at the time, and decided to eat in the kitchens again. After the meal, he went to his room and summoned two guards. He told them about the situation and his plan, before sending them to secure the room, and research Granger and Weasel. Toni doubted that was his real name, but he had yet to learn it.

At six thirty, Toni finally dived into his old scripts to find a passage to use tonight, and prepare for his mini theatre class. He doubted any of them would really appreciate the class, but chose to teach as if he were in front of a class at Lombardi. He left his rooms ten to seven and entered the classroom, to find Malfoy and Blaise already waiting for him.

"Well, you two are early." He spoke.

"It's Draco's way of showing Granger and Weasley that he's better than them." Blaise answered.

"Weasley? So that's his name. I've been referring to him as Weasel in my head all day." Toni said. He heard a snort from Malfoy but chose to ignore it. He moved all the desks except four to the side of the room and cast a quick cleaning charm. "Take a seat while we wait for the other two."

Toni watched as the two boys sat down, and he placed a quill and piece of parchment on each desk.

"What the hell is the parchment for? I thought we were learning theatre not writing class." Blaise spoke.

"You will see soon." Toni said as the door opened and admitted Granger and Weasley. Granger seemed upset that the Slytherins beat them to the room, and Weasley just glared at Malfoy. "Take a seat and we will begin. A quick rule in my class is that there will be no fighting. That includes with each other or me and my opinions and assignments." Toni took a moment to look at each of their faces before continuing.

"Now you each have parchment and a quill in front of you. The first task is to write out a definition. I want each of you to write down your definition of Theatre. Go." Toni commanded. He watched as they all picked up the self inking quills and thought before writing. His first ever theatre class, his professor had made him do this very exercise, and he remembered clearly what thoughts passed through his mind. Seeing that they all put down their quills he summoned the parchment to him, and began reading the aloud.

"'Theatre is pussies and chits prancing around on stage, and repeating some dead guys writing.' Well, Weasley it seems you are thrilled to be here." Toni looked up to see the satisfied smirk on the redheads face. "But if you ever try to be so disrespectful to theatre again in my presence I will personally hex your balls off and shove them down your throat, and let the pussies and chits have free reign on tearing your body apart and calling it art" Toni saw the fear pass over the redheads face before he continued.

"'Theatre is the dramatic performance branch of art.' Granger, I am so glad you can memorize textbooks and allow them to do all your thinking." Toni didn't bother looking at her when she made an indignant huff. He only laughed quietly at the next parchment. "Theatre is when Toni looks fucking hot on a stage, and the audience wants to jump and ravage his body." Toni looked at a grinning Blaise before. "Thank you Blaise, I'm sure that was a compliment."

"Theatre is the use of space to perform. Theatre is people or a single person taking an empty space and using it to entertain an audience of one or many." Toni was slightly surprised at the in depth answer from Malfoy. He looked up to see a bored expression on the blonde's face. "Malfoy seems to be the closest to the truth. My definition of theatre is simple. Theatre is creation. Just like Music or visual art, they are all about creation. "

Toni began walking around the room as he spoke. "In music you use an instrument, to create a composition. He hear the notes in your head and form them to create that symphony, In visual art you use clay, paint, crayons, markers, charcoal, pencils, almost anything to create a piece that relates your message, or emotion, or even to convey your soul on canvas. In theatre you can take a prewritten script, or write your own, and use those words on the page or in your head to create the blocking, delivery, set, and even music. You can speak with words, or your body. One sentence can be used to build a forest scene with wood nymphs and fairies. That sentence can create an entire history and future of a character. You, the performer, the director, the producer, the set builder, are taking a few simple words and creating a world. That is theatre to me. That is art. Art is creation, and before we continue with these lessons, I want you all too fully understand that. Any Questions so far?" Toni asked as he returned to sit on top of a table.

"How was that close to the ferrets definition?" Weasley sneered at him. Toni thought Granger would ask that question, but it really didn't matter who asked.

"Malfoy was the closest because he said that you take a space and use it. That is part of creation. Theatre does not have to be performed on a stage. It can be performed on the street, in an alley, in the back of a warehouse. Theatre only needs room to perform, and imagination, and an audience. Even if the audience is the other performers, or yourself, it is still theatre." Toni couldn't continue because Granger spoke up.

"That is a lovely explanation and all, but I read that you use your magic to create illusions. Why do you need a set builder if you use magic for everything? Is it really performing when you rely on magic to do everything?" She asked in her bossy know-it-all tone.

Toni looked at the girl before coming up with a plan. He asked her to stand up and then waved his wand a few and muttered some spells under his breath.

"Okay Granger, I made your desk into an illusion of a rock cliff. I want you to stand on you chair and jump on the rock cliff, while yelling 'Knowledge is Power!'" Toni watch amused as the girl gave him a superior look, and climbed on her chair. She took a deep breath before screaming 'Knowledge is Power' and jumping, only to fall flat on her arse.

"See I moved the desk to the side and just put an illusion there. Illusions are great but you can't stand on them. You use a set builder to build that part of the set, plus its takes a lot of magic to keep illusions in place and to blend with the other magic being cast by other performers." Toni explained.

"Why can't you just conjure a platform and illusion it. It's not like you actually have to have someone build anything." Weasley piped in, obviously trying to save Grangers argument. Toni conjured a floating platform in front of Weasley's desk and told him to jump on it. Weasley did as told and when he hit the wood, it broke and he also landed on his arse.

"Magic is wonderful, but conjured or transfigured wood is either weak, or doesn't stay transfigured for long. When building a house in the wizarding world, all builders use purchased wood. They build the muggle way, with the aid of magic, but they don't depend on it. Strengthening spells wear off, and it takes a lot of time to renew them." Toni watched as Malfoy raised his hand and nodded towards him.

"So, you're saying that in magic theatre, it's a combination of both muggle and magical means to create the set, because as powerful as the performer or illusion is, that doesn't make the set. They will do a simple thing like build a rock cliff, and add some stones, while you will do the harder part of creating the illusion of a sunset with magic." Toni raised an impressed eyebrow at Malfoy before nodding his head again. Knowing he should continue you the lesson he went to the second part of his assignment.

"I made you define theatre, now I want you to show me. I have a page of dialogue and with a partner, you will to perform that piece. I would like to say you can use illusions, but I know none of you are trained in magic theatre, so just read the dialogue and give a basic performance."

"Pfft, it can't be that hard if you can do it, I bet I can create the perfect illusion." Granger said, while grabbing the script from Toni's hand. Toni ignored her comment and gave a script to Malfoy and Blaise. He sat back and watched the pairs read through the script, and talk about possible ideas. Toni noticed that Blaise and Malfoy actually seemed to be concentrating, while Granger was bossing Weasley around and lecturing about who knows what.

Toni really didn't want to be here, but he needed the Gryffindors occupied while his guards searched their rooms, and kept an eye on Dumbledore. He would have hated every moment of it, except that Malfoy seemed to be truly interested, and it was nice to be able to pass his art on. Plus it wouldn't hurt if he went home with the experience of teaching theatre to the academic students of Hogwarts. Looking around he sensed that they were ready to perform.

"Ok, Malfoy and Blaise, you're up first!" He moved aside as the pair walked forward. They had a scene from Peter Pan, where Peter was having a sparring match with Captain Hook. Blaise was Hook, and he was hunched forward, with one eye closed and his left hand closed with his index finger acting as a hook. Toni had to laugh at the scene since; Blaise was going for an overly exaggerated old man, and Malfoy was acting like a spritely five year old child jumping around and babbling in a baby voice. Toni was glad that they didn't try to re-enact the scene from two years ago, and enjoyed the fight scene, where Blaise tried to swipe at a jumping Malfoy. The fight ended with Malfoy pretending to trip and landing on Blaise who had stabbed himself with his own hook and rolling over into the mouth on the crocodile.

Toni took a few minutes to finish laughing at their scene and gave them extra points for characterization and their creative ending. He figured maybe it wouldn't be so bad to teach to these two. He turned his focus to the other two and motioned them forward for their scene.

Granger was acting as Peter and seemed to have erased majority of Hook's lines and replaced them with mini rants and nonsense. She also tried making an illusion of a ship with her wand but failed and only managed to get brown ribbons to surround them. When it came to the physical fight she dropped her wand and the illusion broke and she stumbled forward and hit the wall. Weasley, for his part had been pretending to be a super lazy Hook, merely looked at her, and rolled his eyes before he dramatically fell over and died.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Toni was pissed. They scrapped the original script, made a mockery of it, and then insulted Toni by trying to make an illusion and half-assed the entire thing. "I told you to read and perform the scene, not change the entire thing, and give the world's shittiest performance. That was a disgrace. You can't make an illusion yet because you have not been trained. You can't just read about it and assume you can do it. Granger I know you like to think yourself the smartest person in this school, but you are actually the dumbest and most self-centred idiotic moron I have ever met. Reading isn't everything and studying won't make you a good performer. Stop trying to pretend you're better than me and actually listen. I don't have to waste my time here trying to teach you this if you are going to try and show me up every class. Listen or get the FUCK OUT! This is my art, and if you insist on keeping up this attitude about it then I suggest you leave my sight and never approach me again. Weasley, same for you!"

Toni knew he was probably over-reacting but bloody hell, he loved theatre and these two were being such douche-bags about it. Why couldn't they understand that this wasn't like charms where they wave a wand and say a few words and poof results. This was time and dedication and practice.

"Fine, if you think you are so great, why don't you show us the scene with all your superior theatre knowledge, Potter!" Granger sneered at him.

"Fine! Blaise, play Hook the same way, and I'll do the rest." Toni quickly summoned a few desks and put them together before creating the illusion of a ship. Next, he motioned for Blaise to climb a broad before he handed his wand off to Malfoy and stood in front of the Italian. He whispered a few instructions to the other boy before waving his hand and making waves crash at the side of the ship and cloudy sky. He used his magic to float up and held onto a beam. Once he was in place and ready he started the scene.

Blaise played his part wonderfully and Toni half way through flew down and landed, they partook in a fight and as their fight grew the waves shook the boat more. Finally a crocodile shot up and Toni pushed Blaise into the mouth and the scene ended. Looking back he saw the shocked faces of Granger and Weasley and the impressed look on Malfoy's face.

"_That_ is magical theatre, not that farce you tried. Maybe now you will listen to me." Toni turned and carefully lowered Blaise to the ground. He had been caught by a net charm Toni cast before hand, and the illusions disappeared. He stepped down and went to his bag. He pulled out four one act plays and handed them out.

"This is the play called Fat Pig by Neil Labute. I want you and your partner to pick two scenes and rehearse them this week. Next week at this the same, time we will meet here and perform them. If you don't think you can handle this simple assignment" Toni looked at Granger "then don't bother coming next week. No magic, but I want you to think about characterization and the themes. Consider costumes and props and if you have any questions you can ask me throughout the week. Questions?"

"What are props?" Blaise asked.

"They are items used in a performance, For example, a prop for Peter Pan, would be swords or a clock that Peter carries." Toni explained. He watched as Granger raised her hand and nodded towards her.

"Why are we doing this the muggle way? We want to learn magical theatre, so why aren't you teaching us that?" Toni was really starting to hate her voice.

"Is a child given a broom and quaffle and told to play in a professional game? No one can be given a script and instantly be able to perform magical theatre. You need to grasp the basics of acting first before we move on." Before she could respond one of his guards opened the door.

"Master Cortalioni. It is ten and your father is waiting for you in your apartment." The guard announced.

"Thank you, Rico. Well looks like class is over, Remember- two scenes, rehearse, and ask me for help if you need it." Toni stood and gathered his materials, before exiting the room.

When he arrived in his apartment he found his father sipping a glass of cognac by the fire. "Hello Papa."

"Ah Toni! I heard you are teaching a theatre class?"

"Well I wouldn't say teaching per say." Toni sat down in one of the armchairs and dropped his bag. "Dumbledore is trying to have two students spy on me and they asked for the class. Blaise and his friend Malfoy are also attending, and seem to have some potential, but the other two just irk me. The female, Granger, actually tried to show me up while performing. I admit I lost my temper at her, but what's done is done." He sighed.

"Yes one of the guards mentioned that you were close to murdering someone. I actually came to talk to you about Dumbledore. As you know when I took you, I left your bank account alone, so that you could not be traced. Since you have now returned, I to went to Gringotts and found something interesting." Toni raised an eyebrow and waited for his father to continue. "It seems that while you were in the care of the Dursleys" he sneered at their name "Dumbledore was in control of your bank account. When you failed to appear at the age of eleven, the goblins froze the account and Dumbledore was prevented from making withdrawals, like he had been doing the previous ten years. Yesterday when you were reported to be back, the goblins unfroze the account, since you have been proven to be alive, and Dumbledore immediately set up two accounts for a Miss Hermione Granger and Mr Ronald Weasley. He took large sums of money for both. You are of age now, but Dumbledore managed to retain signing authority on your account. I tried to correct that today but it will be awhile to regain all the lost money and to overrule Dumbledore's authority."

Toni merely nodded at all the information he was receiving. "Papa could I order a freeze on the account again, and that way Dumbledore can no longer take money. As the heir, do I not have the right to freeze the account even if Dumbledore is the signing authority?"

"I believe that could work." His father said. Toni looked up to see a proud look on his father's face, and he couldn't help but smile.

"I will visit the bank tomorrow and talk with the goblins." Toni and his Papa talked for a while longer before the Cortalioni Head rose and left his son to rest. Toni quickly prepared for bed and was fast asleep. The illusions he used took a lot of power, and he was drained.

The next morning Toni woke and asked a house elf for breakfast. He ate quickly and prepared for his trip to the bank. He had a free morning and decided to best get the visit over and stop Dumbledore quickly. He dressed in some of his best business robes and left with a small guard.

When he got to the bank, he was escorted to the Head Goblins office, and had a very interesting meeting with the goblin. The Head Goblin, Ragnuknok, heard about the activities regarding his account, he had become furious. Quickly he began filing papers to freeze the account and issue a full investigation while taking Dumbledore off the account. Toni felt that he had a very successful morning and returned to school for afternoon transfiguration.

He was exiting the bank when the street was filled with a series of pops and Toni was surrounded by Death Eaters. He looked around and saw that his guard began to battle the intruders and he drew his wand and started fighting the cloaked assailants.

* * *

Thanks to PeruvianDarkness

and many thanks to all my loyal readers and reviewers

You are all truly FANTASTIC

Genießen!


	7. Beautiful World

_**Beautiful World**_

Toni managed to get out of the little fight in Diagon Alley just fine. Apparently, the Death Eaters had been notified of a Noble Heir at the bank that wasn't aligned the Dark Lord, and they wanted to persuade him to join. After they got beat the Death Eaters retreated, and Toni had to endure a lecture from his father on bringing more guards, and maintaining a lower profile in public.

The week passed at a moderate pace. He went to classes, did his homework, practiced his violin, and even made a few business proposals for his father. He developed a routine of arriving for breakfast right before it finished so he could grab and go. He ate lunch and dinner in the kitchens but made a two-hour appearance in the library every night. Granger and Weasley had not approached him for any help all week, so he assumed they were stubborn, too proud, or pissed that their bank accounts were revoked.

He doubted the latter, since Dumbledore had yet to acknowledge the fact that the account was frozen again. He had asked the Goblins to notify him, if Dumbledore attempted to doing any banking from his account again, but it seems as if the aged wizard had yet to return to the bank.

Blaise and Malfoy had a few questions, but it was mainly Blaise asking. Toni figured that Malfoy let the Italian do all the talking so he wouldn't insult him. They asked advice on props, and how much creative freedom they truly had. They also wanted to discuss if it was okay for them to cast just one little illusion to help support their scenes. Toni agreed and told them he looked forward to their performance.

Now that Monday had rolled around again, Toni was anxious to start his mini class. He had a treat for tonight and was looking forward to seeing their reactions. In truth it was more of a treat for himself. He finished his homework, and organized his next theatre assignment for them. Checking the time, Toni left his room and slipped into the kitchens for a small meal. After thanking the Elves, he left to go meet his class.

Arriving at the classroom, he was hardly surprised to see Blaise and Malfoy waiting. He merely greeted them and started setting up for their warm up exercise. After he was finished, he turned around and observed the other two boys talking until Granger and Weasley arrived. Once everyone was there, he began his class.

"Well, I'm glad everyone returned." He had to hide a wince at those words. "Today we will start with discussing the play, then do a warm up, and finally you will present your work. Now, who wants to tell me what they thought of 'Fat Pig'?" he asked. Toni wasn't surprised that Granger raised her hand, but he was slightly interested when Blaise did. "Blaise."

"I think that the play is a tragedy. Helen is this heifer who attempts to accept her weight issue but, like most people, kept falling back on destructive ways to cope. In her case she tried using humour to cover the fact that she still obsesses over her weight. She accepts she's fat and she eats whatever she wants but I think it's more of her lying to herself that what others say doesn't bother her. When she finds this good looking guy who genuinely likes her, she is happy, but he succumbs to society's pressure and they break up. Tragedy all around for Helen. She lies to herself and loses the man who loves her because he wasn't strong enough." Toni was impressed with his insightful answer and mentioned that.

"Anyone think differently than Blaise?" Seeing Granger raise her hand, he sighed at the unavoidable and called on her.

"I agree that it's a tragedy, but more for Tom. He didn't cave to society, he merely sacrificed his love for her, so that she would no longer be made fun of from his co-workers. He was the one truly hurt, and lost the most, because he actually did something for their relationship, unlike Helen." Granger finished in a superior tone.

Toni saw Blaise getting ready to go on the offensive when Granger shot him a haughty glare and knew he had to step in.

"Well… both good opinions, no matter how different they are. Everyone will view a play in their own way. For example, I thought of this play as a melodrama. You had the good guy, bad guy, troubled character, and the outsider. Very classic and cookie cutter to me. Anyways, I think that is enough, but now for the warm up! Everyone stand and clear the desks were going to need space."

Toni set up the magic run CD player, while the other cleared the floor. Once he was finished, he shot them all a mischievous grin before announcing the warm up. "Okay class, our warm up for the day will be- The Cha Cha Slide!"

"The what?" Malfoy blurted out.

"The Cha Cha slide! It's a dance, and all you have to do is follow the directions in the song. Simple really." Watching as Malfoys face became doubtful, Toni turned around and used the remote to start the music.

Sound filled the room as Toni turned around to face his students.

To the left, take it back now ya'll  
One hop this time, right foot let's stomp  
Left foot let's stomp, Cha Cha real smooth.

Toni followed the steps, and watched as the others stood their ground. "You can with do this here with just us, or I will force you to do it in the Great Hall in middle of dinner." He threatened.

Toni kept dancing as Blaise shrugged his shoulders and joined in.

'How low can you go?' Toni and Blaise faced each other and started slowing moving down.  
'Can you go down low? All the way to da floor?' Once they got to the floor they were basically grinding each other but still moving to the beat.

'Can you bring it to the top? Like it never never stop?' The pair started moving up, and once they were standing properly again, Malfoy walked over and joined them for the rest of the song. After all it was a pretty fun song to dance too.

Once the song finished, he restarted it, and turned towards the Gryffindors.

"Last chance to join or tomorrow's dinner gets a show."

Toni was having fun dancing between the two Slytherins and kept laughing that Malfoy seemed to incapable of doing a simple grapevine. Once the song finished a second time, the three boys were flushed and laughing at the silly moves the started adding during the song. Once they had calmed down, he decided it was time for presentations. He passed a bottle of water to each Slytherin and summoned a chair for them to sit on.

"Kay, well Blaise and Malfoy went first last time, so I think Granger and Weasley have that honour this time."

The three of them sat back and got comfortable, but in Toni's case he summoned his bag and retrieved a clipboard with parchment and self inking quill. Once he was settled, he motioned for the pair to start. Toni wasn't impressed with their work. They had chosen the scene when Jeannie confronts Tom about his new girlfriend, and scene where Jeannie and Tom fight over Helen a second time. Not overly different scenes; they had the same emotions, and basically consisted of yelling. There was no difference in personality, and Toni was glad to see them finish.

"Okay, now Blaise and Malfoy you're up!" Toni watch the pair walk forward and begin taking random items from a bag. Once they were done the rearranged furniture and got into place. Toni was curious about the minor illusion they asked permission to use.

Blaise and Malfoy had decided on doing a quick montage of the times Tom and Carter were together. They used the illusion to change their shirt colours, but it was a very nicely put together piece. They varied the pieces of dialogue they used to create a rollercoaster of attitudes, character traits, and gestures. They even used a mini basketball and hoop for transitions. When they were switching they would throw the ball, which would distract the audience so they could change shirt colours and continue as if nothing happened. Toni was highly impressed with their work.

Toni got a surprise when after their montage, they stayed up front for another performance. Blaise winked at him before he cast another illusion and was suddenly wearing a woman's nightgown. Laughing he watched as Blaise inflated to look like a giant beach ball, and they started the scene between Tom and Helen talking in the bedroom. Malfoy kept trying to kiss Blaise, but Blaise would push him away and reference whatever was on the T.V, until finally Malfoy gave up and moved away.

Toni knew they were making a farce of the scene but still couldn't help but laugh. Unlike Granger, they did it tastefully, and was entertaining. Her work was just a train wreck. Watching them cleaning up, Toni decided to move onto the discussion part of their performances.

"Okay Granger and Weasley, why did you choose those two scenes?" he asked calmly.

"Well they seemed to have the most action. This was a terribly static play, and I don't understand why you assigned it. I don't think you know how to teach." Granger stated. Toni refrained from rolling his eyes, but briefly considered the option of murder.

"It was to test your delivery of lines. There are many ways someone could have spoken those lines, and implied different things. It was a test to see if you would be creative over the delivery, or just half-ass it like you did. You went for anger in both your scenes which shows a lack of creativity or even vision in your work. They were mediocre performances. Now tell me why you only played Jeannie and not Helen."

"I don't want to play some fat person. That would be absolutely terrible!" Granger screeched.

"Well, I hope you aren't actually serious about magic performance because you would fail before your first audition." Toni spat at the witch. Her ideals were horrid, and prejudice. He chose to direct his attentions on the Slytherins.

"Now Blaise and Malfoy, excellent work. I enjoyed your montage and think that it was brilliant. I also enjoyed how you used the basketball as a transition, and the shirt colour. I would suggest maybe limiting the colours to two or three instead of one for every scene. Just so you don't distract your audience too much, and it takes less magic and concentration if you just keep interchanging them. Plus your final scene was highly amusing. You both have potential for the theatre." Toni smiled at both boys while he put down his notes. He would go over them more in depth later.

"Wait! Why were they allowed to change around the assignment and we weren't? When we did that you yelled at us, but they do it and you compliment them!" Weasley finally spoke up.

"They asked- plus, theirs had finesse." Toni answered simply. Looking at the time, he quickly retrieved the next project and handed it out.

"This is information and reference material on interpretive dance. I also included a story that I want you and your partner to perform. You have all week to develop a dance to tell the fairy tale I have chosen for you. Once again feel free to approach me for help." He quickly dismissed them and left his room for a meeting with his father.

He met with his father and went over the business proposals he made. After a challenging debate with the Cortalioni Lord, they came to an agreement and his father left with more business opportunities, and Toni went to bed with the knowledge that he was almost ready to be the next Family Head.

The next morning everything was normal until dinner time. Keeping his word be cast a spell on Granger and Weasley that made their bodies move to the next song they heard. They kept their right minds and freedom of speech, but they had to dance to the music. The two created quite the spectacle as they moved to the song, and yelled at the same time. Toni had to raise the volume on the music so it could be heard over the colourful vocabularies of the dancers. He watched amused from the doorway as the two danced the Cha Cha Slide for the whole school, and quickly left once they finished.

Thursday night he was taking a walk around the lake when he was approached by Blaise, asking for help Saturday afternoon. He agreed to meet him, and then went back to his rooms. Once Saturday rolled around, he was interested in what the two snakes needed help with and approached the empty classroom they used for theatre lessons.

"So what can I help you with?" he asked them. They explained what they were trying to go for, and that they need help with certain body formations. Toni jumped into the project and helped them until dinner rolled around. By that time the boys had numerous amounts of ideas flowing through their heads, and thanked their teacher. Blaise left quickly claiming he needed to meet Pansy and Toni was left with Malfoy.

"So you are pretty good at the whole performance thing. Have you ever considered it before this year?" Toni asked. He was actually interested in the other boys answer and tried to appear sincere to Malfoy.

"When I saw you as Peter Pan, I admit it caught my interest. Those tights mixed with your dirty dancing from Monday, I can see why Salvo Moretti was so eager to kidnap you." Malfoy spoke in such a neutral tone, the Toni was stuck between horror and shock.

He didn't like thinking about Moretti or his method of escape, and here was this boy he barely knew, throwing it into a conversation like they were discussing Quidditch scores. Toni felt numb as he remembered that incident from a few months ago and quickly excused himself and fled to his rooms.

Malfoy stood in place berating himself for what he said. He hadn't meant to say that. Actually, he didn't even know where that statement came from. It felt like he was just stuck in his head watching someone else talking through his body. After a few minutes of mentally screaming at his actions he left the room.

A figure in the shadows was smirking after it watched the scene. It was fun watching the Malfoy heir act that way to Toni Cortalioni. Mentally taking note of the name Moretti, the figure silently left room. With this new information, there were plans that needed to be made and people to contact.

* * *

Lets all give a hand for my beta PeruvianDarkness

Also D.J Caspar for the song

and finally my most wonderful reviewers and readers

your words make me smile a ridiculous amount

Genießen!


	8. Holding out for a Hero

Holding out for a Hero

Sunday morning came, and Toni refused to leave the comfort of his sheets. The night before, he had returned to his rooms with a tub of cookie dough ice cream and curled up in front of his fireplace, trying to dispel memories of Salvo. Before he managed to slip into an ice cream induced coma, Toni had crawled into bed and buried himself in his blankets. He wanted to scream, and curse Draco Malfoy for reminding him, and talking about it so casually, but in truth, Toni just couldn't be mad with the blond.

As he was slipping back into the sweet comfort of dreams, he heard knocking. He tried to ignore it, but the knocking only became more persistent. Giving in, he moved his arm slowly out of his cotton cave, and reached his wand. One quick wand movement and word, the door opened for the intruder.

"What?" he mumbled from the heap of sheets and blankets.

"Well is that how you greet your sister?" Toni quickly lowered the sheets from his head and broke into a grin.

"Em! Sorry, I didn't know it was you. Care to join me?" Toni lifted one of the edges of his fort and invited her in.

Emilia smiled softly at her brother, before removing her cloak and shoes. Walking over, she carefully crawled into the nest Toni had built around himself and wrapped her arms around him.

"Care to tell me why I found you in a comfort cave and an empty tub of ice cream?" she gave him one raised eyebrow while he smiled sheepishly at her.

"Um… just memories that got me down. But enough about me, why are you here?" Toni asked.

"We'll revisit you in a moment. I am here because you are supposed to receive a check up every two weeks. Anna had plans with her husband today, so I offered to visit. Plus I missed my little brother." Emilia affectionately messed up Toni's hair.

"Father has been here every Monday night though."

"Yes, for business purposes, but not a genuine visit. Now up and out of bed, I want to see your Great Hall and have a tour." The duo argued for a few minutes before Toni submitted and left his warm cave to shower and get ready for breakfast.

He had tried to convince Emilia to go to the kitchens but she was adamant that she eat in the Great Hall. Toni only conceded after she agreed to avoid the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables. They enjoyed a silent walk, and only after they were both settled at the Hufflepuff table did they speak.

"So why are we avoiding two tables?" She asked while she spread strawberry jam on toast. Toni knew she would pursue this topic until she was satisfied and answered honestly.

"There's two Gryffindors that are on Dumbledore's payroll, but are doing the worst possible job of befriending me. Then there is a Slytherin, that was the one who reminded me of some bad memories. As you can see, I'd rather avoid both parties."

Since the Hufflepuff table was by the wall, the brother and sister team sat so they faced the entire hall. This arrangement made it easy for Toni to point out the culprits when Emilia asked. He found Granger and Weasley easy enough at the lion table and gestured to them first.

"The tall redhead is Weasley and the fuzzy haired girl latched onto his arm is Granger." He explained. The both observed as the pair were conversing with their housemates and seemed to be relaxed and actually enjoyable company. Emilia thought they looked like pleasant company and asked why Toni was so against them.

"Well, besides trying to initiate a fake friendship, Granger always tried to be better than me. She only recites from books and then has such a superior attitude around me that I can't help but be bothered by her. Weasley agrees with everything she says, and is too short tempered for my liking." He explained.

Emilia slipped into a pensive state for a minute. When she finally returned her focus to her surroundings she made a request.

"Brother dear, can you walk over to them and ask a question or something. Just for a few moments so I can observe them." Toni nodded and gracefully rose from his seat and walked over to the pair.

"Granger, may I interrupt you for a moment?" he asked the Head Girl. He watched her turn and was faced with a cold expression.

"What do you want, Potter?" she glared at him. He ignored her use of his old name.

"I just wanted to know how your dance assignment was coming along. I am looking forward to the song you chose to represent Rapunzel." He spoke in a friendly tone and managed to hide an eye twitch.

"We haven't found a song yet. I have been too busy with Head Girl duties, and Ron has been training his new Quidditch players. Besides, it's almost impossible to find a song about Rapunzel in Hogwarts." She continued to glare at him, but Toni went for a friendlier route this time.

"Well may I make a suggestion. You are muggleborn correct?" Granger simply nodded at him so he kept talking. "Well there is U.K band that just released a popular song that I think you can make work." He asked a nearby seventh year boy for parchment and ink, before he wrote down a band name and song. He handed the parchment over to Granger, and bid farewell before returning to his sister.

"Well, now why did I have to play nice with the children?" he asked as soon as he sat down.

"I think there's a spell on them." Emilia stated simply.

"What?"

"Well they appear normal and friendly to their housemates, but as soon as you approached their postures stiffened. When you spoke, Granger went instantly from nice, warm, to cold, and rude. I think someone cursed them against you." Toni was too stunned to speak, but hid it well, and gestured for her to continue.

"I believe it's the 'Nodomu Intensīva' curse."

"What's that and how do you know about it?" Toni managed to regain his bearings enough to ask.

"One of my tutors was Latvian, and she was teaching me interesting curses from her home country. I remembered that one because I thought it would interesting to test. Basically it is used to take a mood, desire, or intention and intensifies it. So I'm guessing Granger likes to excel, so the curse made her act overly superior. She was paid off to befriend you, but because of this spell, she is instead completely driving you away." Emilia explained.

"So did this person cast the spell on her to help me, or are they behind their own nefarious plot to get to me? Oh! And is there a counter curse?" Toni asked. He looked back over at the lion table and took in the same observations that Emilia had. Granger and Weasley did seem to be enjoying the company of their table, and held none of the cold demeanour they used around him.

"I believe there is a counter spell, but I don't know it. I can owl my old tutor, but it may be awhile. Also I will tell father about this new development before we start assuming the caster is friend or foe." Toni nodded in acceptance before he thought of something else.

"Can you test to see if that spell is on someone else?" He thought about Malfoy's actions and wondered if he suffered the same thing as the Gryffindors.

"Yes, but I would need you to approach them." Toni nodded and gracefully stood from his seat, and walked towards the Slytherin table. Upon reaching the table, he approached Blaise and Malfoy and quickly searched for an excuse for his visit.

"Blaise, Malfoy, I was wondering how your project is coming along." That was a good reason. Nice neutral topic and to the point to avoid any unwanted comments.

"Hey beautiful!" Blaise started "It's coming along great, we spent all of yesterday night rehearsing and hope you like it. We chose a nice Chopin piece to accompany it." He explained. Toni smiled at the Italian and responded.

"I'm glad to hear that Blaise, I look forward to seeing it tomorrow night. I may have a presentation to show you as well." Toni decided to ask Emilia if she would mind spending the night and assisting him tomorrow.

"You can do more than dirty dance? Well aren't you an all purpose toy." Malfoy commented. Toni froze as his words from the previous night returned full force.

"Draco!" He heard Blaise hiss before he could remember how to speak.

"Well if you'll excuse me, my sister is visiting and I really should return to her." Toni managed to whisper before turning and walking back to Emilia.

"Em, I think it's time to go." He presented his arm and waited for her to take it after she rose from her seat. Once they were ready, Toni led her out of the hall and straight back to his room, where he resumed his position under the covers.

It took Emilia an hour to convince Toni to tell her what happened. He explained his theatre classes; why he was helping the two snakes, Malfoy's comment after, and the one from this morning. Emilia looked like she was ready to storm the castle, but Toni managed to calm her down and instead ask her to do a dance routine with him. Emilia agreed instantly, but promised that if Malfoy ever said something like that again, she would not be deterred.

They quickly chose a fairy tale, and began working. The rest of the day was full of music and laughter between the pair, and they only took a break to eat in the kitchens, and send a note off to their father, and Emilia's fiancé. By the time they were confident in the routine, it was midnight, so they settled into bed and fell asleep.

Over the years, when Toni used to have a nightmare or flashback to the Dursley's, he would crawl into Emilia's bed and cuddle up to her. She never complained, but instead wrapped her arms around him and sang a soft lullaby. After two nights, it had become Toni's most comforting place. As he grew up and his nightmares lessened, he would sometimes crawl into her bed, for no reason. Later whenever he became frustrated or sad, he would instantly flee to Emilia's room and tell her everything that was wrong. It was just the close relationship the shared. That night, Toni was reminded of the later years of his childhood, as Emilia once again wrapped her arms around him and sang to him softly. He fell asleep with a smile and wiped all memories of Salvo and Malfoy from his mind.

When morning came, Toni skipped class, and finally took Emilia on a tour of the school, grounds, and village. They ate lunch in the kitchens, and dinner at The Three Broomsticks. Once they returned the gathered everything they needed for Toni's class and left.

For once, Toni arrived first. He set up the music player and cleared the front of the room, transforming it into a mini stage area with curtains. He transfigured a few wooden chairs, into more comfortable padded seats, and then set up two dressing areas. He finished just in time for his four students to walk in.

"Okay everybody, please remain standing and form a circle on the stage area with me." Toni instructed. Once everyone was in place, he didn't allow from them to talk before he jumped right into the physical warm ups. He kept them moving and prevented them from talking, before he ushered them to their seats and explained that he had his own presentation to show them.

Emilia disappeared behind the stage left dressing room, and Toni took the stage right one. After receiving the signal that Emilia was ready, Toni started the music. Celine Dion's 'A New Day Has Come" filled the air. Once the music started Emilia entered from stage left. She wore ragged clothing and acted as if she had been thrown to the floor. She did a quick ballet routine, imitating cleaning, before she ended with a quad pirouette, and her dress changed into a white flowing dress.

Toni walked on from stage right, and they did a short Viennese waltz. Part way through, Emilia lost one of her white ballet slippers, and ran off. Toni gracefully picked it up, and ran off stage. As soon as he left Emilia returned wearing her ragged dress once more, and was back to cleaning, but this time in a contemporary style of dance. Toni entered and they did a routine together to show happiness, as the music ended.

The brother and sister turned to see the stunned expressions on all four faces. Taking a small bow, both turned and returned to the respective dressing areas to change. Once Toni emerged again, he addressed the class.

"So who wants to take a guess on the fairy tale we portrayed?" he asked.

"Bloody Hell! You expect us to do that?" Weasley yelled.

"No, I don't think you could do that. That was an example of different dance styles. Ballet, Ballroom, and Contemporary. I expect you to choose one dance style and base your presentation off that. Most dance performance focus on one style, but to show you a broader range, I chose three." Toni explained.

"But why do we need to learn dance?" Granger spoke up in a haughty tone. Toni hoped Emilia would find the counter course soon, because that tone was really starting to irritate him.

"For many reasons." Toni stated simply before calling forth Blaise and Malfoy. He asked which song they chose and then let them get ready. They chose Chopin's 'Fantaisie-Impromptu' to showcase Snow White. Emilia sat beside him, and they started. The first movement was dedicated the confrontation between Snow white and the evil witch, and then flowed into Snow White running away. The second movement was Snow White dancing in the forest and making a home. Finally, the third movement showed the 'death' of Snow White, and finally ended with the prince arriving to revive her. Malfoy had played the Witch, and Prince, while Blaise was a very pretty Snow White. They had used the contemporary style that Toni showed them on Saturday, and did a fairly good job.

Toni and Emilia compared their notes quietly, while Granger and Weasley got ready. Once they signalled they were ready, the Cortalioni pair took out fresh parchment and started the music. Toni smiled when he found out Granger took his suggestion and used 'Wonderwall' by Oasis to showcase Rapunzel. Their movements were hesitant, and jerky, while the choreography was simple and repetitive. They appeared to also be trying a contemporary style, but Toni guessed they started yesterday and didn't have time to smooth out things or get overly creative.

After they finished, Toni and Emilia gave out their notes on the performances. They gave constructive criticism and kept the students talking to a minimum. It was Toni's new strategy to avoid rude conversations, or a repeat of Saturday night into Sunday morning. Once they finished, the class was dismissed, with the assignment to rework their performance, and use the advice given to develop a more complete and smoother routine.

Brother and sister returned to Toni's apartment, and were greeted by the sight of their father. Toni was used to his presence, and took a seat opposite the Italian Head and waited for him to start. Once Emilia was settled and everyone served their drink of choice, Tony Cortalioni decided to be blunt.

"Toni, a young gentleman approached me a few days ago, asking permission to court you. After an extensive background check, I have decided to allow the boy to begin the courting process."

"What?" Toni was stunned. He had always assumed that he would be present when his father finally let someone court him.

"All the information we have on him is in this folder, so be sure to read it. He will begin the courting dance next Monday, so you have to cancel your class. There is also a folder of some business deals that have been presented to me that I want you to look through, and we will talk further at a later date." Tony said in his straight forward business voice.

Toni just stared at the two manila folders in his lap. He hesitantly took them after his father presented them, but was still too stunned to open them. Emilia had left with their father, over an hour ago, but Toni had yet to move. Normally a court-ee could refuse the courter, but with Tony Cortalioni, if he finally gave permission to someone, then that meant he expected his son to accept them.

Glancing at the time, he snapped out of his daze and got ready for bed. He placed both folders on his desk, but refused to open them yet. Once he was ready, he made his blanket cocoon, and settled in for the night. With his mind racing with thoughts, he slipped into a fitful sleep.

The next morning, Toni woke and got ready for the day. Once he had everything he entered the Great Hall, earlier than normal and approached Granger and Weasley. He informed them, that due to some unforeseen circumstances, they had an extra week to work on the assignment. He quickly excused himself and went to the Slytherin table. Seeing his two targets, he approached them quickly and interrupted their quiet conversation.

"Excuse me Blaise, Malfoy."

"Well if it's the sexy man I was just thinking about!" Blaise exclaimed. Toni sent him a small smile before speaking.

"I have to cancel next week's class, so you have an extra week to choreograph your routine.," he said.

"Is everything okay, Toni? Why are you cancelling the class? Can't you just reschedule it to another night?" Blaise asked quickly.

"No, next Monday a young man will come here to start courting me. As per tradition, the first week, I will be exclusively his during the evenings." Toni decided to just be honest with Blaise. He was also raised with the knowledge of the Italian courting ritual, so he would understand why Toni could not just reschedule.

"Oh, so who is the lucky guy then?" Blaise let some sadness leak into his voice.

"I don't know. I have yet to read the file my father has given me. I will probably will not be available during the day to help you either. I have a stack of business proposals to go through. Sometimes I dislike business season." Toni's statement got a small laugh from Blaise.

"Well I'm glad I don't have to worry about business season. Toni, I hope this guy turns out to be alright. I would hate to think you're stuck with some arse." Blaise stood and placed a reassuring hand on the smaller boy's shoulder.

"Thanks Blaise, but I should really go." Toni made his exit, and left the Great Hall.

"Poor Toni." Blaise said while shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Draco drawled from beside him. He had been silent during the entire exchange and was now curious about the courting ritual and what they meant by business season.

"Well in Italy, there is a three month period they call business season. Any Family Head can be approached by hopeful business partners, and they must read any proposals they are given. It starts August first, and then ends on Halloween. For example, Everyone seeks an audience with Antonio Cortalioni, but he is so selective that during business season, he gets flooded with business proposals since tradition doesn't allow him to refuse. Toni, as his heir, assists him and reads majority of them, before passing the most promising onto his father." Blaise explained. Draco took some time to think on the information.

"So, if my father wanted to approach the Cortalioni Head, during this business season, Cortalioni is obligated to at least have someone read over his ideas." Draco said slowly.

"Yeah, too bad he didn't think of that years ago. You could have avoided years of him being rejected by Cortalioni, if he just approached him during the right months." Blaise was oblivious to his friends current thought process, as he buttered another slice of toast.

Draco now had the information to make his father proud of him. After all this time, of listening to his father rant about how exclusive Cortalioni was, he had the means to get the Malfoy family onto the Cortalioni radar. He admitted to himself that technically they were already on the radar, but that was in a negative light, and this was politics and business, not dancing and prancing. Draco left quickly to compose a letter to his father about this wonderful bit of news.

Meanwhile in another part of the castle, a person was cursing Antonio Cortalioni, for finally accepting a courting proposal. This hopeful young man would ruin the plans that were set in motion, and that was unacceptable! Entering a secret passageway, the person exited the school and apparated to a manor. Entering the lounge the figure spoke before anyone noticed them.

"We have a small problem."

* * *

Many thanks to PeruvianDarkness

and the wonderful reviewers and readers.

I hope you enjoy!


	9. Heels over Head

AN: I don't know what happened to my Beta, but she seems to have disappeared, so this is an unbeta'd chapter. Any mistakes either ignore, or tell me and i'll get to fixing it.

* * *

That night after classes and homework were finished, Toni sat on his bed staring at the envelopes. One was full of business proposals, which he wasn't looking forward to reading. He would more than likely read the first paragraph of most then toss them into the fire. After all, 90% of them wouldn't even be worth the attention of his father. The second held the gathered information on the person bold enough to approach his father, and apparently great enough to be allowed to court him. He knew he should be thoroughly reading up on the man, and memorizing all the important information, but the part of him that was scared, was winning, and not allowing him to open the cursed envelope. He sat there wondering if the person inside already knew him, or was just after his name.

Tony had spent years trying to heal all the abuse the Dursley's had done to Toni. When Toni joined the family, he had been painfully shy, insecure, and scared of almost everyone. After awhile, he began to trust and open up to the family and guards. As the years passed, he grew bolder, and more confident, but inside there was still the scared, insecure child. What if this person finally met him, decided he was too boring, too ugly, or too something negative, and told his father that he no longer wanted to court him. Would this person ever love him? What scared Toni the most was that he would marry this person and be abused again, and this time his father wouldn't come along to save him. That his father would tell him he wasn't strong enough, and then forget about him. Maybe that was why, his father had chosen the man, without his presence. Maybe Tony Cortalioni didn't believe in his son, and found someone worthy of the title of Head of the Italian Families, and was marrying Toni off, so this new man could take over.

Toni had worked himself into a depression, and didn't notice the tears falling from his eyes. Still staring at the envelopes, he grabbed both, and tossed them aside. He barely registered that the contents of both went sliding across his floor. Instead of cleaning up, Toni crawled into his covers and made his little comfort cocoon. He lay awake for hours, staring into nothing as thoughts of where he showed weakness in front of his father flashed through his mind. Sure, he had been kidnapped, but he got free, and yes, he had been in the middle of several attacks and assassination attempts, but he was still alive. Toni thought hard, but he couldn't think of anything, and that made his feel worse. He was unknowingly upsetting his father, which caused him to lose faith in his son.

Once Toni arrived at that conclusion, his silent tears, disappeared to choking sobs. The guards stationed outside had known that occasionally the heir would have nightmares. Knowing this the disregarded the noises from inside, and thought he would be fine in the morning. When the guard changed shifts, no one mentioned the crying, and they carried on.

The next morning, Toni refused to leave bed. He stayed hidden away in his own little world, trying to find away to wrap his head around these new thoughts. Around lunchtime, he emerged, and gathered all the fallen papers. Once every paper was picked up, he retreated to his bed to start reading. He had a goal now. He would make his father proud, and make this work. Even if the person never loved him, they might grow fond of each other, or at least work well to carry on his father's enterprise. To do this, he needed to read and learn everything about his future suitor. His father taught him how to be strong, and he would listen.

The guards were curious when the heir didn't emerge, like he normally did. Assuming he was just working on paperwork and ordered food, they left him alone. When lunch rolled around and still no sound had come from the room, the guards were a little worried. When dinner came, and no one had seen nor heard from the heir, they decided to enter the room and investigate. Walking inside, everything seemed to be in order. As the approached the bedroom area they saw the scattered paper, and mound of blankets. One guard stepped forward, and pushed back the blanket to discover the sleeping heir. He was sleeping curled up in a ball, with a single sheet up paper hidden under the sheets with him. The paper told the guards, who exactly would be coming to court the heir.

Thursday morning came and the heir was still refusing to leave his cave of comfort. To him it was a safe place, where the outside world didn't matter. He needed time to think and process everything he had read the day before. While he was trying to formulate plans, and whatnot, he also read through the proposals. As he thought, most of them ended up in the pile destined for the fire, but one or two held promise. He read them through thoroughly, before making notes at the side. When he exhausted that he summoned his business ledger, and did some research, and made plans.

He called for an elf to have lunch brought o him, and continued working. He wanted to get this done, so he could leave and start his own preparations for the courting. Once he finished he wrote a letter to his father, and called a guard to send it off. He showered, dressed, and grabbed his money before informing the guards of his plans. Toni along with some of his guard left the school, and apparated off to Florence. After all, they had shopping to do.

Friday Toni once again missed classes. He sent one of the guards to collect his homework, and did that in his rooms. He was glad that the guards never mentioned his activities to his family members, or Em would be here smothering him. He needed time and room to think about the whole situation. At the same time, he needed to do this on his own, and knowing his sisters they would try doing the whole thing for him.

The day before, he went to Florence to prepare. The whole courting process took about eight months to complete. The first week, the two '_hopefuls'_ would spend every day together –on a type of date- and exchange gifts. Then for the eight months following, the time spent together would vary. Now, he just needed to work out what gift he would give the suitor. The first gift was something that represented themselves, to the other. Also, since Toni was the one being courted, he was allowed to plan the first date. He spent yesterday buying one or two things, but mainly looking for ideas. Knowing he needed to go out shopping again, Toni decided to try another shopping district for more inspiration.

Draco and Blaise had not seen Toni all week. After he cancelled their class, he seemed to have disappeared. He didn't attend class, or show up for his usual grab and dash breakfast. No one knew where his rooms were, so they couldn't conveniently drop by and inquire about him.

Draco was somewhat worried about Toni being courted. He didn't particularly know why, but the thought of the creative raven-haired annoyance being trapped in an arranged marriage, irked him. Everyone assumed that Pansy Parkinson and he were arranged to be married, but that was false. When he was nine and found the contract, he found the first loophole and burned the thing. His nine-year-old self refused to marry the pigtailed spoiled brat, which constantly stole his toys and yelled. His seventeen-year-old self, still stood by his nine-year-old decision. Pansy was no longer that same little girl- no she was much worse now. He stole other girls' boyfriends, and only yelled when her hair care products went missing. Other than that, she was a delight to be around.

Draco had been hoping to find Toni, but since the boy was M.I.A, he had to postpone his apology. Blaise had taken him aside Tuesday, and punched him hard. His arm was still bruised from the brute. After the physical violence was over, Blaise lectured him about his actions. He berated him on his; words, lack of tact, and how rude he had been. When Draco tried to explain that he didn't know why he acted the way he did around the Italian heir, Blaise smacked him on the back of the head, called him an idiot, and left. Draco still could not figure out what he meant.

Now it was Sunday night, and Draco was slightly upset. He wanted to apologize before the courting thing started, that way he didn't have to deal with a possible giggly Italian heir, and a pompous suitor. He was hoping to see the other boy, quickly drag him away and apologize with no witnesses, but now he wouldn't be able to because some lovesick fool, would probably be stuck to Toni's side. This whole courting business was ridiculous if you asked him. The whole process was probably only in effect because air-headed girls, wanted knights in shining armor to ride up to the manors and save them from the fierce goblin, holding them hostage during their during parties -completely and utterly ludicrous.

Somewhere in an isolated country home, a group of people sat plotting. Tomorrow they had a new threat to take out. The Cortalioni heir would meet the suitor, and the assembled group, would find a weak spot, and strike. They would just follow the first few days, and if they couldn't find an opportune moment, then they would have to snatch the boys during a following date. Some thought they should let the week play out, so they could research the new threat, and be better prepared. Some wanted to strike as soon as the man arrived, and never let him near the heir. One man strongly suggested they just steal the Cortalioni heir, and forget everything about the suitor. He was ignored and reminded of why that wasn't such a good idea.

The talked long into the night plotting, and by the time the sun was peaking over the horizon they had come to a decision. Nodding to one another, they left and went to either gather supplies or sneak into the school. The man, who suggested just kidnapping the heir, was left in the house to stew. Everyone felt he would be too much of a risk on this mission, and left him in charge of relieving the owls of any letters or packages.

He was anxious to do something, but he knew if he wanted and listened to these people, than soon his little love would be delivered to him. He just needed to wait, wait for owls, and be patient. Besides the leader of the group, had been working on this for years, and with all that planning, what could possibly go wrong?

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So last shapter had two really interesting reviews.

One: made me chuckle because I was called EVIL several times for cliffhangers.

Second: I laughed really hard, when the person said this story reminded them of noodles.

I'm working on the entire courting week now, so next update should be a big chapter.

Also I started posting the new quiddtch story!

Other than that, thanks for all the reviews

and Orange popsicles are awesome.


	10. I've Just Seen A Face

_**I've Just Seen A Face**_

Toni stayed in his bed, staring at the ceiling. It was Monday, and the day he would meet his suitor. He was ready, he prepared everything he would have to do throughout the week, and he accepted the match. Sure, he didn't have a choice, but he needed to trust his father's judgment. Once he gathered the motivation to leave bed, he would shower, get dressed, and meet the suitor in the Entrance Hall. His guards had informed him earlier that his father, and sisters would be arriving in half an hour.

When Toni was ready, he was standing in a corridor just off the entrance hall. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself. He would finally meet _him._ He read the file, memorized the facts, but that didn't mean he was completely ready to meet him. When he saw his father approach, signaling that it was time, he took another deep breath and called forth all his training.

"I'm ready, Papa."

"He's all settled in the receiving room to meet you. Follow me." Toni followed his father, as the approached the seemingly innocent door of the receiving room. It was originally used to greet dignitaries, and other Headmasters but over time they just held all meetings in the Headmasters office. Now it held purpose again- it held his future. His father opened the door and waited. Toni finally took the final few steps inside, and for the first time set his eyes upon Tristan Malfoy.

"Seigneur Malfoy, Monsieur Malfoy, it is a pleasure to finally meet you both." Toni greeted. As Toni spoke he took the time to study Tristan. He wore a white robe with grey and blue accents. The robe told Toni that he was pure, he was a calm person, and he was a mature dependable person. Toni himself wore a white robe with yellow and orange accents. Yellow represented his creativity, and happy nature, while orange showed his curious and enthusiastic side. This was going to be an interesting partnership for sure.

Draco stiffened in his seat. He had a sixth sense when _he _ was around, and now it was acting up. Tristan was in the building. He just didn't know why, or where he was. He scanned the Great Hall, but didn't see him, but he had to be nearby. Draco slowly rose from his seat and calmly walked to the doors. When he arrived he managed to see Tristan and his Uncle slip into a room. A free more minutes later and Toni and his father also entered the room. Seeing this site, dread seemed to wash over his entire body,

Blaise had seen his friend tense in that certain way, which meant Tristan was around. He followed Draco to the door and saw the same scene he had. When he saw his friend pale from the corner of his eye, he knew he needed to do something quickly. He also noted the colours of the robes, and secretly wished he could watch the entire courtship. If anything, the awkward conversations and clashing personalities would be entertaining.

The four exchanged greetings, and sat down for breakfast. This period was meant for the boys to get comfortable around each other, while they talked about neutral topics like the weather, the food, and their favourite teas. This was also used to voice any objections to the courtship. For example if Toni or Tristan showed up wearing black, than it could end the entire thing. Black meant you were no longer pure, and Tony Cortalioni would never allow his son to marry someone tainted. You could kiss and touch all you like, but the actual act of sex out of marriage labelled someone as tainted. If his father wanted to challenge the status of Tristan's virtue, this would also be the time. One simple spell and they would all know. However, to do that, would insult the Malfoy family. His father would need sufficient grounds to challenge the claim, and by his calm demeanour, Toni doubted he would.

When the meal finally ended, it was time for the first date. It was Tristan duty as the suitor to plan it. There would also be a gift exchange between the two, and time to learn about the other. Tristan told everyone that he planned for the date to start at noon, and Toni would need to change to more comfortable muggle clothes. Toni nodded that he understood and retreated back to his rooms. His bed looked very inviting, but his father was there, and they had several business proposals to go over.

When noon arrived, Toni stood in the Entrance hall wearing black jeans and a light blue t-shirt. When Tristan approached he was dressed similar but with a dark wash jean and black v-neck shirt.

"Hello Toni"

"Hi Tristan. So what are we doing today?"

"We are going to an amusement park." Toni blinked at the unexpected idea.

"What?"

"Well I figured it was a great way to break the ice and have fun." Tristan merely smiled at Toni's bemused face.

"Sorry, I just didn't expect such an idea. No offense or anything, but usually people opt for a picnic or something." Toni stated.

"Yes well, I think I know where the confusion comes from. My colours this morning didn't accurately represent me. Seigneur Malfoy chose them since he thought they would set a better impression. Now how about we get to Alton Towers?"

"Sounds wonderful." Toni was warming up to Tristan. So far, he seemed like a nice guy, and he was right. An amusement park would be a great way to break the ice and have fun. Toni gave Tristan a sincere smile when the other boy took his hand and led them out of the castle. Once clear of the wards, Tristan apparated them to the park, and they spent a great time together.

They were just entering the gardens when Tristan spoke. "So Toni, your father mentioned that you were teaching a theatre class at Hogwarts?" Toni looked at the older boy and took the prompt.

"Well it's not a real class. Four classmates expressed an interest to learn the art, and I couldn't refuse. They meet me on Monday nights and I teach, I guess."

"What have you done?"

"Well first I made them define theatre. Believe it or not, but Draco had the best answer. Then I gave them a scene from Peter Pan and they acted it out. Next, they did dialogue work, and dance. Next week they will present a fairy tale in a dance routine." He explained.

"Draco really? Hmm, well are you teaching tonight?" Tristan said while he led them to a bench to rest.

"No I canceled tonight's class. I didn't know what you would plan, so instead of being late or having to cancel at the last minute I canceled last week."

"I would like to see one of your classes if you don't mind."

"Not at all. You are welcome to watch or join in all you want. " After that they talked a little more about themselves. Toni already knew that Tristan graduated from Beauxbaton early and went to college for business, but he didn't know that he was taking a Minor in philosophy. Toni also learned that Tristan had great sense of humour. They traded stories of various pranks that somehow managed to happen when they were around, and were laughing majority of the time together. They went on a few more rides, before Tristan suggested they get dinner.

After dinner at a nice sushi bar, they returned to Hogwarts for the gift exchange. It was traditional that the first day of courting, that they gift a gift that represented themselves to the other. Once they reached Toni's apartment, Toni excused himself to retrieve what he bought. Toni picked the two small boxes on his bed and rejoined Tristan in the sitting area.

"Well per tradition, I shall go first." Tristan said. He presented a small ring box to Toni. Toni nodded and took the box, pulled the ribbon, and opened the lid to find a diamond ring. It was silver with the Malfoy family crest with several inlaid diamonds. It was beautiful. Toni held the box out to Tristan. Tristan took the ring and raised Toni's left hand while slipping the ring onto his ring finger. The first gift was always a diamond ring to show intent to marry.

Toni held out the ring box he brought and watched Tristan open the box to discover the Cortalioni crest with inlaid diamonds and one small ruby. The previous process repeated but with Toni placing the ring on Tristan. Next was the personal gift. Tristan held out a medium sized white box for Toni.

When Toni opened the box he found several different baked goods. Tristan saw the slightly confused look and quickly explained.

"One of my favourite things to do is bake. When I'm stressed or bored I usually kick the house elves out of the kitchen and take over. It's something most people don't know about me, and well I decided to bake you several things." Tristan than pointed out and named each dessert in the box. Tristan had made raspberry lemon tarts, Brown sugar pound cake, and petit fours. Toni couldn't wait to eat them, but held himself back so they could finish the gift exchange.

Toni watched on nervously as Tristan opened the last box. He didn't know how well it would go over, but it was suppose to represent Toni, and this was the first thing he thought of. Tristan lifted a silver necklace, that held the famous happy and sad drama masks, but with a twist.

"Are these fox masks?" He asked.

"Well yes." Toni knew he had to explain himself just like Tristan did with the baked goods. "I am a fox animagus. Only my family knows, and I just completed a full transformation. I wanted to give you something that showed my love of theatre, but then everyone knows about that. So when I was at the jewellers I asked if they could make the masks into fox masks. I hope you like it."

"I think it's wonderful." Tristan gave Toni a kiss on the cheek before putting on the necklace. Toni gave a bright smile at the gesture, and decided maybe this whole thing wouldn't be too bad. Shortly after they bid goodnight, but not before Toni warned Tristan to wear durable clothes, and to meet him here for breakfast.

The next morning Tristan arrived early for breakfast curious about Toni's plans. They ate quickly before Toni practically dragged Tristan out of the castle and transported them both away. They landed in an alley and before Tristan could catch a breath, Toni was pulling him along once more. They entered a shop full of camping equipment and other items.

"Are we going camping?" Tristan asked hesitantly.

"Huh? Nope were going rock climbing, so you need different foot wear and some equipment." Toni answered while looking for a sales person. Spotting one he dragged Tristan towards the woman. "Excuse me Miss, but my friend here needs stuff to go rock climbing, could you assist us?" he asked politely.

The saleswoman beamed at the pair and dove into the task with such a vigour, that Tristan was sure she only consumed sugar. He was soon caught up in a whirlwind of equipment that he could barely register anything, when Toni was dragging him out of the store again. He was then taken away again, and they landed in front of a steep rock cliff.

"Toni slow down, what is going on?" he asked.

"Well I figure if I'm going to marry someone they should be open to new things and not afraid to take risks. Therefore, I asked my security team to set up today's event. We're going to have to climb this cliff and lunch will be waiting for us on top." Toni gave him another bright smile before turning and walking towards his waiting equipment.

Once both boys were ready, and the security double checked everything for safety, they stood at the bottom of the cliff. Tristan was nervous, but Toni had a smile. "Come on Malfoy, Don't tell me the French don't have a sense of adventure!" With that exclamation, Toni jumped and grabbed a piece of rock and lifted himself up. Tristan could only sigh and follow the younger boy. The climb was pretty quiet, except for the few comments Toni shouted down to "motivate" Tristan, or tell him how far they still needed to go.

Once they reached a wide ledge, Toni allowed them to rest. Toni called one of his family house elves to them, and ordered a plate of sandwiches for lunch. Once the elf had brought the food and drinks, it popped out again, leaving the boys alone.

"So how close are you to your cousin?" Toni asked as he snagged a ham sandwich.

"Are you referring to Draco?" Tristan also took a ham sandwich, but seemed to be more interested in studying Toni's face than the food.

"Yes. Are you two close?"

"Draco isn't my cousin." Tristan stated simply.

"I don't understand. Francis and Lucius are brothers." Toni was confused. According to his file, Francis was the elder brother and held lordship in France, while Lucius inherited the smaller fortune and resided in the U.K. Tristan was listed as Francis' heir, while Draco was Lucius'.

"Draco is my younger brother. Half brother really."

"What?"

"It's one of the family's best kept secrets. I don't mind telling you since we are to be married and you should know the history of the Malfoy family. Plus part of the courting contract Francis and Antonio signed, any information about the others family cannot be shared." Toni nodded his head to the older boy to show his understanding.

"Lucius married a woman named Jacqueleen. She got pregnant on the honeymoon, and 9 months later I was born. Due to complications, Jacqueleen died after giving birth. Lucius hired people to watch me, and not even five months later, he married again, but to Narcissa Black. Apparently he only married my mother because it was arranged, but once she passed he went and married some trollop he met in school." Tristan paused to take a drink, and Toni remained silent so the older boy could gather his thoughts and continue however he wished.

"Narcissa eventually got pregnant and gave birth to Draco. She ranted and raved endlessy about her precious son, how her son deserved to be the heir, and other related topics. When I was four, Francis came for a visit. Draco was only two at the time and probably wouldn't remember the visit, but it is still perfectly clear in my mind. He came for the weekend, and on the first night they three adults gathered in father's study to talk. I got out of bed, to ask my father if he could read me a story, but instead I witnessed something memorable." Tristan paused, but once again Toni didn't mind.

"I quietly crept towards the study door and overheard their conversation. Lucius was commenting on how Francis had yet to produce an heir, while Narcissa was bragging about Draco. Francis married someone because of his heart, but she ended up being infertile. Francis is five years older than Lucius, so it was seen as shame on the family name that he had yet to have an heir. He refused to leave his wife or take a mistress, so he remained heir-less until that night. Narcissa was actually the one who suggested Francis make me his heir after Lucius slipped into the conjoined library to find a book. They were talking and she told my Uncle 'If you are too stubborn to take a mistress than take Tristan. That brat is an eyesore around here, but at least he has Malfoy blood that should be enough to make him your heir. If you don't take him, than I may have to arrange for an accident. Heavens knows Neither Lucius or I want that thing around here. Draco is all we need.' Francis was so upset with her comments, that he stood up and threw his brandy glass at her. When Lucius came back because of the noise, Francis declared that he was taking me with him, and Lucius and Narcissa were banned from the main house in France. After that he found me listening outside the door, grabbed my hand and led me to my room, packed my things and we left that night. It worked out for the best in the end. Francis got an heir, and I got a wonderful childhood and education. Now tell me how does one go from being the saviour Harry Potter, to Antonio Cortalioni the sixth?"

Toni took a moment to process the story. He would need to discuss this later with his father. It was quite the tale, and he didn't doubt Tristan, but it required further investigation into Lucius and Narcissa. Plus it only seemed fair that he share his story with Tristan, but he had a questions first. "I will tell you my past, but first a question. Does Draco know the story you just told?"

"No. Draco was told that Francis decided that I would be the perfect heir and took me as his own. When I was old enough to fully understand what I saw that night, I was worried that it was too late and that Draco would already be so entrenched in his parents ideals, that I could never show him the real Narcissa." Accepting the answer Toni began his tale.

"After that historic night, I was placed at my mother's sisters house. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were suppose to take care of me. Instead I lived in a cupboard under the stairs, was beaten, and neglected. Finally when I was five, my Papa was in the neighborhood doing business and saw me in the garden. He asked my Aunt and Uncle about me, and they said many things he didn't like. Before the day was out, I was on a plane to Italy and Papa was on the phone with his lawyers getting adoption papers ready. After that I lived in Italy and went to Lombardi's and all major events were probably recorded and in the file you received on me." Toni finished.

"Hmm, well we both had wonderful starts to our childhoods." Toni couldn't help but laugh at his statement. It was true however. Both suffered from neglect and various forms of abuse, but they were taken away and given a better life.

"Why did you want to court me?" The question had been nagging at him, and now seemed like a good moment to ask. They were already sharing personal memories, so why not add this to it.

"I didn't. Not at first. Francis was making a deal with you father, but suddenly they realised how deep they were both in. Francis didn't know how must trust to place in your father so he decided he would demand something extreme. He decided that he would ask for one of the most precious things to your father. Annalisa was married and Emilia engaged, so he asked that his heir be married to me. It was to symbolize their strong and friendly relationship. I was sitting in on the meeting and when asked if I approved, I agreed since it would benefit the company. Your father refused to agree to such a thing until he interviewed me in private. That talk lasted three hours, and once he agreed, I set out to find out as much about you as possible. "

"So you didn't even know anything about me when you agreed to court me?" That was completely surprising to Toni.

"I knew about you. I knew you were some prodigy and took music and theatre. I knew you were adopted, and I saw you at a few formal events even though we were never introduced."

"I knew of the deal between Francis and my father. Well most of it. I was the one who initially read over the proposal and did research. I made a few suggestions and pointed out some things to keep watch of. Once my apart was done, Papa took over but I didn't request to see the deal to the end. Lucius has been trying for year to get partnership with Papa, and I wasn't interested in seeing where this deal went until its final stages. Now I wish I was there for the whole process. This courting wouldn't have been such a shock if I had known it was part of a business deal."

"Did you always know you would be in an arranged marriage, or did you hope to marry for love?" Tristan asked. Toni took a moment to study the other boy. He had the famous Malfoy blond hair and grey eyes, and sharp features. Compared to Draco though, Tristan's features were sharper, where as Draco's were softer. Tristan was laying down with his arms under his head, staring at the sky, but even in that position Toni could see the muscular body underneath. Tristan was slightly taller than Draco and had more muscle tone. He also had broader shoulders, and didn't wear a blank mask all the time like Draco. Since Tristan wasn't wearing a mask, Toni could see the slightly wistful look in the other boys eye as he asked the last question.

"Love. I always wanted to marry for love. I never deluded myself into thinking this could never happen though. Papa informed me about the possibility of an arranged marriage, and made sure I understood the why behind it all." They spent a few minutes in silence with Tristan watching the clouds, and Toni watching Tristan.

"How about we get off this rock?" Tristan asked while he sat up.

"Sounds good. We can go back to my apartment. You see I have this box of baked goods, from this excellent baker, and I was hoping to share them with you." Toni responded with a smile.

"Well I don't know. I'm a pretty good baker myself, I might have to bake for you so you can taste true greatness." Tristan teased.

"Hmm, yes you must bake for me and I will judge if you are better than my personal baker." Toni winked at the older boy. They gathered their things and prepared to leave. Toni suggested they just apparate back to Hogwarts gates instead of climbing back down, and Tristan agreed. Once they returned to the school the pair retired to Toni's apartment and descended on the baked goods. Once they were finished it was time for a gift exchange once more.

The second day was always reserved for a gift from their past. Something that influenced you when you were younger. Toni had to think hard about this one. There were many important things that influenced him but he didn't think giving Tristan a portrait of his Papa would have been appropriate. While shopping in Florence, he found a advertisement floating down the street, and immediately knew what to get after reading it.

Tristan resized a package from his pocket, but waited for Toni to retrieve his gift. Toni opened a desk drawer and brought out an envelope and presented it to the older boy. "This is something that influenced me greatly. Once you open it, it is pretty self explanatory.

Tristan took the envelope and slit it open swiftly, he reached inside and withdrew two tickets. "Two tickets for 'Don Pasquale'?"

Toni answered the unasked question. "That opera was actually the reason I chose to switch to theatre. It had quite the impact on my life, and when I saw a flyer saying there was a production being held in Florence, I couldn't stop myself from getting tickets. I would like you to go with me to see it."

"I would be honoured to go with you. Thank you." Tristan responded. He placed another kiss on Toni's cheek before presenting his gift. Toni slowly opened the box and pulled out a silver charm bracelet, with a miniature Eiffel tower attached.

"My move to France had the biggest impact on my life. " Tristan spoke before Toni could even open his mouth.

"Thank you, it is very beautiful." Toni stood on his toes to place a chaste kiss on Tristan's cheek, before he held up the bracelet and asked Tristan to put in on him. "So it's your turn again tomorrow to plan something."

"Yes, and tomorrow I will pick you up for lunch. You will get your gift during the date instead of after like we have been doing, and I suggest you wear something comfortable and in blue and white. "

"Oh?"

"Yes you must wear blue and white clothing tomorrow, it is part of the whole experience."

"Well I'll take your word for it." Toni laughed. "I'll see you at lunch tomorrow than." Toni lead the older boy to the door and opened it for him.

"Remember blue and white, and you better not forget Cortalioni!" Tristan stated before he walked away.

Toni shook his head and closed the door. Tristan was interesting, and they could be good friends, but Toni didn't know if the love he wanted would ever develop. They could grow fond of each other and have some love between them, but it wouldn't be the kind that Toni always hoped for. They would be happy, and have good lives, and that would be enough in the end.

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Thank you to all the Readers and Reviewers.

I apologize this chapter is unbeta'd again...

Til next time!


	11. Poker Face

Hehehe . . . Hey. . . So I don't have any excuse for taking so long ot update besides, I hit a writers block and then got distracted by life. Anyways this is un-beta'd since I think I need to talk to my beta. Anyways enjoy and tell me what you think.

* * *

The next morning Toni woke and got ready for the day like normal, except he took extra care to wear blue and white clothing. Finding he had nothing to do until lunch, and not to keen on attending class, he decided to retire to the library and research some stuff for one of his fathers proposals. One of the proposals had referred to some archaic law, and Toni was determined to ensure that it wouldn't come back and bite them later. As he was walking around a corner on the second floor he ran into someone.

When Toni got his bearings he felt the body that was laying on top of his. He quickly opened his eyes to see the fairly large chest covered in Gryffindor colours. Just as his brain was registering this fact, the person seemed to come to their senses and scrambled up and off the poor Italian heir. Looking up he met with the face of Lavender Brown.

"Oh I am so sorry!" Brown stated.

"It's fine, really it's probably my fault completely." Toni tried to reassure the distressed girl as he straightened himself out.

"Hardly, I was the one that was taking the corner to quickly without looking." Brown seemed sincerely upset over the accident so Toni just gave her a soft smile and held out his hand.

"No apology needed. I am Toni Cortalioni."

"Lavender Brown." Brown quickly shook Toni's hand. The action seemed to snap something inside her because she quickly got a mischievous look on her face. "Did I not see you wearing courting robes a couple of days ago?"

"W-well. . . maybe?" Toni formed a light blush on his cheeks as he looked down. He was still self conscious, and if this girl was anything like his sisters, she would only embarrass him further.

"Oh that is so adorable!" she squealed. "You must tell me all about him!" Brown quickly grabbed his wrist and dragged him into a nearby classroom, and put up some privacy wards before settling in with a eager look on her face.

Toni knew how when females got into this state there was no deterring them. "Well there's not much to say, we only met a few days ago."

"Well what's his name, hobbies, favourite colour, where does he live, and what does he do for a living?" Brown quickly listed of the questions.

"Tristan, his name is Tristan. Um. . . he likes to bake and he lives in France. He is in university for business so he can take over the family business and I don't know his favourite colour." Toni seemed a little baffled at the last answer. He knew Tristan liked raspberry tea, but he had no clue about his favourite colour.

Brown seemed amused by his expression and giggled. "Don't worry, I have been dating my boyfriend for 8 months and I don't know his favourite colour. It seems to change from green or gold."

"Boyfriend?" Toni was actually intrigued. He never dated someone so he didn't know how a normal relationship worked.

"Yes! His name is Seamus and he is in the same house and year as me. He is Irish so he has this really sexy accent, and is the sweetest man when were alone. In public, he's a complete goofball, and flirt but that what makes are private moments more special." She explained. She had a soft smile on her face as she explained like she was reliving a nice moment between the two.

"What does he do that makes him so sweet?" Toni asked. He quickly realise dhow personal that was and started apologizing. "Oh I am so sorry. That was a really personal question and you don't need to answer if you don't want to."

"Nah it's okay." Brown just waved off his concern."My best friend Pavarti rarely lets me talk about him anymore. I don't think she really understands what a wonderful feeling it is to be in a serious relationship since she goes through boys rather quickly. She says she's tired of hearing about Seamus, so it's nice to have someone who's willing to listen.

Well once during the summer he took me to his family home and gave me one flower. He told me the rest of the bouquet was hidden around the house and I had to find them. So during my search every time I found one he would give me a kiss and a small present. The final flower was in the kitchen were he had prepared a nice dinner for our anniversary."

Toni smiled along with Lavender. It did sound like an awfully sweet and wonderful gesture on the part of her boyfriend. "He sounds like a wonderful guy."

"Now what did you two do on your first two days of courting?" Lavender asked.

"Um.. ."

"Don't worry, I know all about the Italian courting ritual as with the French and English. I am fascinated with them all so I researched them thoroughly. I wont ask what the gifts were since, those are personal, but I do want to know where he took you." Toni couldn't refuse her. She reminded him to much of Emilia when he told her about his first crush.

Toni started telling Lavender all about the amusement park and rock climbing adventures. He also told her how Tristan requested he wear blue and white that day. Lavender seemed to get a knowing glint in her eye and rushed him out of the room, saying she was going to better prepare him. Toni was completely baffled, but just told her how to get to his rooms and spoke the password for her.

Lavender completely ravaged his closet, before deciding on what she wanted him to wear. He ended up in dark blue jeans that according to Lavender fitted just 'right' with a white polo shirt with a single pastel blue strip down the left side. Next she gave him a royal blue sport jacket with twin white stripes down the arm and a white croqueted beret that let his shaggy hair flair out and frame his face. Next she transfigured one of her quills into a silver chain with a fleur de lis emblem and finished the entire look by putting two blue and white stripes across each cheek.

Just as she finished a knock could be heard, and Toni realized it was already noon. He quickly rushed over and opened the door for Tristan who was dressed in similar colours. Tristan wore a royal blue shirt with a giant white fleur de lis, black jeans and a blue baseball cap.

"Oh Toni you match your French beau perfectly!" Lavender squealed again. Tristan seemed to notice the girl now that she spoke and he quickly stepped in the room to introduce himself.

"Hello miss, I'm Tristan, it's a pleasure to meet you." Lavender seemed to get a dreamy expression on her face at his accent, but quickly snapped out of it.

"Lavender Brown. Oh you two just look so cute together. Anyways I'll let you get to your date, but Toni you must come sit with me at the Gryffindor table tomorrow for breakfast and tell me all about it." With that said she seemed to skip out of the room without waiting for a reply.

Toni couldn't help but smile at the girl's antics. She was bubbly, but really a sincere person, and told many funny stories about her boyfriend. Toni enjoyed her company, and didn't mind seeing her tomorrow.

"Do you know where were going?" Toni snapped out of his thoughts at Tristans question.

"No, what do you ask?"

"Well just the way your dressed, it tells me you know exactly what we're doing today." Toni took a moment to look at his clothing and shrugged.

"Lavender did all this. She seemed to know what we're doing but I have no clue." He sheepishly admitted.

"Well that's good. That means your properly prepared, but I still get to surprise you." Tristan than took his hand and led him out.

When they finally arrived at their destination, Toni saw a large stadium. Giving Tristan a questioning eyebrow he waited for an explanation.

"We're going to watch the France vs. Italy quidditch game today." Tristan said with a beaming smile.

Toni groaned aloud. He was tricked! Tristan and Lavender both tricked him, He loved quidditch but as a Italian citizen he should be wearing the white, red and green of his home country. Oh he would get them both back for this.

o.O.o

The next morning Toni gracefully sat beside lavender and glared at her. When they girl saw his expression she burst into laughter and drew the attention of her entire house. It wasn't an odd sight to see Lavender giggling, but this was her laughing out of pure amusement, that most had never heard.

When Lavender seemed to calm down enough to speak she asked one question. "So who won?" Before she burst into laughter again.

Seamus seeing the potential male threat quickly stood from his spot and sat on the other side of Lavender and wrapped his arm possessively around the smaller girl. This cased to laugh even harder at the two boys. When she calmed down again she faced Seamus.

"Don't worry Seamus, he's gay and in the middle of a courtship." This seemed to instantly pacify that other boy as he broke into a smile and addressed Toni.

"Lo'! Names Seamus, nice to meet you. How did you meet Lav?" he asked.

Toni decided to have a little fun with the cheery boy. "You're right Lavender his accent is absolutely dreamy." He then sent a flirtatious wink to the other boy before regaining his dreamy expression while looking at the boy. Seamus didn't seem the least bit fazed by his actions, but seemed more proud.

"Naturally! Nothings better than the Irish!" Seamus further supported his statement by throwing his arms in the air and puffing out his chest as his hands settled on his waist.

Before Toni could respond to the exuberant boy, Weasley and Granger arrived.

"Harry what are you doing at the Gryffindor table? You rarely eat breakfast in the hall, and have never sat with the lions." Granger said without even attempting to show that she knew she interrupted their playful banter.

"Yeah Potter! You don't belong here." Grangers faithful pet weasel backed her up. Toni's eye began to twitch. Was it really that hard to remember that his name was no longer Harry Potter? Or did these two have a brain defect that prevented them from understanding that simple concept.

"Anyways _We_ came over to ask if you are going to cancel next weeks lesson as well. I mean you cancelled this weeks, and that hardly presents you in a responsible light. I don't think it's too farfetched that we could expect you to cancel future lessons over frivolous matters. Toni noticed how when she said 'we' she was speaking as if they were the most important people in the school. He really didn't want to argue or deal with them currently. He was still nursing his pride over Italy's terrible lose the day before and still had to set up for his date today.

"No that lesson is still on. I may even bring a guest. Now if you'll excuse me Lavender, Seamus, I must go and set up for m date later." Toni swiftly rose from his seat and grabbed some toast before leaving the hall. He hardly noticed the poisonous glares from Weasley and Granger or the contemplative stare from the Slytherin table.

Toni was taking Tristan to a dance studio that night, and now that he thought about it, it may work perfectly when he invited the boy to the theatre lesson on Monday. He just needed to persuade the older boy that he would enjoy himself, even if his little brother would be there. It might help on the way to mending bridges between the two Malfoys.

* * *

**Question!**

**Should I have Toni kidnapped**

**or**

**Let him finish his courting week peacefully and have him kidnapped during hsi theatre class?  
**


	12. Adoption

Authors Note:

With university, work, and other real life events, I no longer have the time to write. I would hate to see this story completely abandoned, so I'm putting it up for adoption. Maybe in time when life slows down, I can return to it, but for now It's up for anyone to take and make their own.

If someone does take this story, I will post the new author so everyone can enjoy their take on it.


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